Quiet Town
by AlcatrazisGod
Summary: A month after Romdeau's initial collapse and the crew of the Centzon would find themselves aimlessly roaming a deserted planet until they too finally died out. After the ship enters a very eerie region, Vincent is contacted by an apparition who calls himself Kano. This spirit eventually convinces Vincent travel to a lost underground city and mobilize an army of mechanized beings.
1. Lost Souls

_Note: There is an interesting back story on how the idea of this story cropped itself into my head. For those of you who are not aware, in the Funimation DVD release of __Texhnolyze__ there is an ad for __Ergo Proxy__ on the last disk. I saw that and then I thought to myself, "If __Ergo Proxy__ and __Texhnolyze__ were in the same universe, I wonder what the Shapes would be doing by then." I had plans to write a story called __Quiet Town__ before. It was suppose to bridge the link between my other story for __Texhnolyze__, Bolt, and it's prequel __Cobalt__. I had plans to make it a dark comedy in which the cast of __Cobalt__ travel into Lux and document everything that happened after Kano's Shapes were immobilized. Then I thought, that's a dumb idea and it would be a small 5 to 10 chapter story if it were to ever be released at all._

_Now, I do have a problem with writing this version of __Quiet Town__. I'm crossing __Ergo Proxy__ and __Texhonlyze__ and it just feels like something I really shouldn't do. I know I'm about to insult the Ergo half of my audience but this crossover feels more like a case of metaphorical cross contamination. The reason I say this is because __Texhonlyze__ is so good and the series is amazingly well written. __Ergo Proxy__ is well, not that good. It's slightly above average, that's something but its no __Texhnolyze__. __Ergo Proxy__ tries to be __Texhnolyze__ but it just isn't intelligent enough to make it there. That and the characters are nothing compared people like Shinji, Kano, and Doc. Pino is cool but everybody else really sucks, especially Re-L. I wish someone would have just shot her at some point, but alas, that never happened. Regardless of all of that, I figured these two worlds would be interesting if combined. Of course, one of those worlds isn't as good as the other, but I'll attempt to keep __Texhonlyze__ from being tainted by having to share the same story with something like __Ergo Proxy__. Ugh._

_I'd imagine that by now, all of the die-hard __Ergo Proxy__ fans must have angrily left now, so for those of you who still remain, here is all of the information you'll need before you start reading. Basically, I've set this specific story up to say that both of these shows were present in the same universe but not at the same time. Lux has been a forgotten location by this point and sits there like a lost tomb of some sorts. Vincent stumbles upon it and tries to free the Shapes so that they can go out and conquer whoever is surviving on the surface. This story relies on the fact that there were at least a few spots of the surface world which were not completely dead. Kano did send an army of Shapes up there for a reason. He said he knew it was pointless, but he also hinted that he did have a reason for doing so. I'd imagine he was looking for a place which was still inhabited with people rather than ghosts. Also, keep in mind that Kano is only in this as a ghost himself. He didn't actually come back from the dead for no reason right after his head was literally punched off his head. Keep in mind as you read this story that it is very in favor of Kano's movement. I found myself sympathizing with him, and this story is here to demonstrate that he was the true protagonist of __Texhonlyze__ or at least in my opinion he was._

_That should be everything, if there are any other questions then feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy __Quiet Town__, please leave your thoughts. If you like this story then I do have other productions written for both series. If you're interested in what I have written for Ergo Proxy specifically then feel free to check out Neo Europe or Redshift. For Texhnolyze I have written Bolt as I mentioned previously._

* * *

**Lost Souls**

The Centzon traveled silently through the barren wasteland which was now the environment of earth. A single spotlight shined from it. It looked like a ghost ship to anyone who might be spectating from afar. Of course, there were no spectators to see such a thing. Sure, the city of Romdeau had a few survivors escape other than the people who were riding on the ship called the Centzon. However, those survivors would only find a painful death.

The lights inside the ship were completely off and everyone was sound asleep accept for Vincent Law. The emerald eyed enigma was standing in the bathroom with the door cracked open. The only light in the ship was produced from the bathroom as well. He stood their looking into a mirror. He had just changed out of his nightly wear, and into that odd red suit of his which he was apparently so fond of. He was about to leave the bathroom on his own when he suddenly heard a rather loud knocking at the hatch which lead to the outside deck of the Centzon.

"Oh, dammit," Vincent sighed and rushed to turn off the light before opening the bathroom door and quietly hurrying to the closed hatch. "I asked him not to knock," he sighed in his usual whiny tone of voice. He did his best to keep from making any other loud noises, but it was all in vein. Re-L opened one eye but did not get up from her bed. She merely watched Vincent as he ran up to the hatch and pulled it open. She was half asleep and naturally did not react, but she was watching from the background.

Once the hatch was fully open, Re-L could see a slightly hazy figure standing there on the outside deck. The figure was that of a young man with his arms crossed. His eyes were closed and a detached smile was present on his face. One notable feature about this ghostly figure besides his brown robes and white coat was the fact that he had long blue hair and what appeared to be mechanical legs.

"Mr. Kano," Vincent greeted in a whisper.

The man Vincent called Kano opened his eyes and glared at Vincent. "Come along, Vincent," he requested quietly. He took a quick peek to see what was behind Vincent but he could not see anything in the dark. "I need to show you something."

* * *

It would be about twenty minutes of venturing out into the nighttime wilderness but the odd apparition named Kano would soon lead Vincent to a structure which almost looked to be a huge underground missile silo. They came to a stop at the edge of this structure which was nothing more than a metallic pit that almost looked to be a gateway to Hell.

Vincent was quite impressed with the structure. It was enormous. A long spiral staircase was the only way to access the seemingly bottomless pit below. "Is this what you were talking about," Vincent questioned. "Is this the entrance to that city you told me about?"

"Yes it is," Kano confirmed with that serene smile still present on his face. "This was the place I led you to. It is called Lux. It use to be an old city deep in the bowls of earth but now it is nothing more than a tomb. It is my tomb. It is the prison my loyal followers are trapped inside. That is why I have been visiting you in the dead of night. As I told you before, you are the first man to come down this way in a very long time. Therefore, I need your help. I must request that you restore power to the city below. The people there. The only ones left that is, have accepted my beautiful bodies yet they remain frozen in time. They deserve more than such a fate, even if they did lose the conflict with the ignorant masses."

"How do I restore the power," Vincent asked. "I know you've been telling me about this obelisk at the center of the town. Is there a power plant near it?"

"No," Kano replied. "The obelisk is the power plant. It was destroyed by one of the leading counter revolutionaries. He subverted the people of Lux and forced them to fight against the next step in evolution. He was nothing more than a common criminal like the rest of the men of fought us. Regardless of this however, he won and the entire city was blanketed in darkness. No matter how hard my soldiers fought to prevent such senselessness, those mobsters came out on top."

"I see," Vincent sighed in a sincere tone. "Well, I've already agreed to help you Mr. Kano. I'll tell the others what we're going to do and..."

"Nonsense," Kano interjected. "You will tell them nothing. They lay hidden in their own ignorance, and it is such a lack of knowledge which has destroyed the city of Lux. You will tell them that you are leaving, but nothing more. Do not even invite them to come along with you. If they are truly competent and worthy of our ideals then they too will follow your shining example. If not, then may the rot away out here."

Vincent looked back into the entrance to Lux with a blank expression on his face. "Okay, I'll tell them tomorrow and I'll leave next week. But how do I restore power to this obelisk of yours? Is it just unplugged or something?"

Kano almost snickered at Vincent's question. "No," he informed. "It isn't that simple. When you finally arrive in Lux, I need you to look for a man named Bunken Kohakura. He should be somewhere in the streets of that dusty old place. You only have to speak to him and he should be able to point you in the right direction."

"Okay," Vincent nodded. "And once I figure out how to restore the obelisk, the city and the Shapes will come back to life."

"Yes," Kano said slowly.

"And after I've turned the power back on," asked Vincent. "Will I then be able to become one of the Shapes?"

"That is correct," Kano nodded with a growing smile. "I think I made the right choice when I selected you out of the others you were traveling with. The two machines were not capable of pulling such a task off for obvious reasons, and that irritable woman did not seem of the proper intellect to understand our ideals."

"Okay," Vincent concluded. "Then I'll see you in a week."

"Actually," Kano corrected just before Vincent had time to walk away. "A week is too long. The form needs to be revived. Therefore, I would request you leave for Lux tomorrow."

* * *

About half an hour would pass before Vincent returned to the Centzon which had now grown stale to him. A few hours later, he would find himself sitting at the table eating breakfast with Re-L just as he did every day. Their journey together was long ove,r and it only took a few visits from an ancient ghost named Kano to make him realize this. As much as he hated to admit it, the time had already come for the little group aboard the ship to go their separate ways. Vincent had already found a place he would like to call home, but he was not about to invite anyone else on the Centzon with him. He felt as if he were a traitor in doing so, but he shrugged this feeling off and kept eating.

"I had the weirdest dream about you last night," Re-L announced out of the blue in that usual flat tone of hers. "In fact, for the past two weeks I've been seeing some odd things. Lately I've heard voices or someone knocking around at night. If I were superstitious I'd label this ship haunted. But anyway, last night I dreamt you were talking to some man with blue hair. He looked like death metal reject or something," she said with a very light smile. She appeared to take pride in her little joke even if Vincent found it rather offensive that she was insulting Kano.

"The ship is haunted and that wasn't a dream," Vincent corrected with an unreadable glare. Re-L found his facial expression very odd seeing as how she was usually the one to give the glares and scolds. "I guess I should tell you now rather than later. I'm leaving," Vincent stated firmly but did not make eye contact with Re-L which was very uncharacteristic for him.

"What did you just say," Re-L questioned in bewilderment.

Vincent sighed but suddenly adopted that familiar awkward smile he usually painted on his face. "There is no reason for me to stay on this ship anymore. I've found a new reason to live. I've found a new set of ideals all thanks to the man you saw last night. In short, I won't be traveling with you anymore. You can have the ship, it's not like I'll need it anymore. In fact, I'm only going to take a few cans of food and leave you the rest because I won't need such peaty things anymore."

Re-L stood up out of her own frustration. "What the hell are you going on about," she asked loudly. "This whole trip was your idea. You're the center of the entire trip itself! The reason I left Romdeau, because of you. The reason we went to Mosk is because of you. The reason we went back to Romdeau was because of you!"

"True," Vincent said calmly. "But the trip has already ended. Now, it's time for us to all go our separate ways. I would really love to invite you but I simply can't. Maybe in time you'll realize why I'm doing this and you'll gladly join me. I'm not inviting you because it is up to _you_ whether or not you want to believe in our ideals."

"Have you gone insane," Re-L inquired, at this point she could not help but shout at him. "How am I suppose to convert myself to these 'ideals' if I don't even know what the hell you're talking about!? And where do you get off leaving us behind!? What, just because that blue haired circus freak comes along and spouts a bunch of ideological nonsense to you but excludes us, you think you can just leave us in the dust? Why do you have such a prideful smile on your face? Just what about this situation makes you think you're better than us?"

Vincent slowly stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Why does it matter if I leave? Are you so selfish that you can't stand losing the company? You have Pino and Kristeva to entertain you, but I have no need to be here. Goodbye Re-L. I'm glad we had such an enlightening journey together, but some people need my help. I'd hate myself forever if I didn't lend them a hand. Why don't you just go find one of those empty domes to stay in? It would be better than living on this cramped ship day in and day out."

* * *

The apparition called Kano was currently sitting on a rock a good distance away from the Centzon. He watched it with a more prideful grin on his face. He watched the silent ship for some time until he heard some shuffling noise from behind. Kano looked over his shoulder to see a young girl with gray eyes, and purple hair. She also wore an odd rabbit costume for whatever reason.

"Um... who are you," the little girl questioned nervously. Kano gave a more friendly smile to the young child and crossed his mechanical legs.

"My name is Kano," he informed. "And what might your name be, little one?"

"Pino," the little girl replied in a slightly less nervous tone of voice.

Kano shut his eyes in a relaxed manner after hearing this. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, dear child. I must admit, your existence fascinates me. To think that a creature contrived of metal can behave so humanly. Is it texhnolyzation, or is it some form of witchcraft. Perhaps I may never know, I doubt you would know, little one." Kano then realized something and widened his grin. "I realize now that I might be boring you with my existential inquiries. Now, do you mind if I pick your brain for a moment on one of your friends? I would like to know a little more about your comrades in that ship over there. Would you mind enlightening me about their nature, aims, and tendencies?"

"You mean Vince and Re-L," asked Pino.

"Yes," Kano stated. "Tell me about Vincent. Is he a trustworthy soul. Would you consider him honest in his intent? Or would you consider him to be a manipulative shrew?"

Pino tilted her head curiously at the unusual question, but smiled confidently shortly afterward. "Vince always tells the truth. He's really nice too. I don't like Re-L though. She's mean. She always yells at Vince even if he didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm sorry to hear that you two have to endure such abuse from that spoiled wretch. There was a reason I selected Vincent rather than her. Not only do I require someone of an open mind, but someone who his well disciplined and behaved. Would you consider Vincent to be an intelligent fellow, or a blithering idiot?"

Back inside the ship, Vincent and Re-L were still arguing. In actuality, Re-L was the only person arguing, Vincent had already made up his mind to help Kano with whatever it was that he needed assistance with. Re-L crossed her arms and glared at Vincent. She appeared to be yielding to his argument which was very unusual but she most likely assumed he would not actually leave.

"When are you leaving," Re-L questioned, realizing that she was not going to be able to talk him down no matter how loudly she yelled at him.

"Today," Vincent informed. "I honestly wanted to tell you a week in advance, but I just learned last night that I would be leaving today."

"And who the hell is telling you to do whatever it is that you're planning to do," asked Re-L. "Who is that man I saw you talking with last night? Just tell me what you're going to do. I at least deserve to know that."

Vincent visibly rolled his eyes in front of Re-L. "You only think you deserve to know. You should be lucky I'm telling you at all. I should just have left last night but I didn't bring any extra food with me. I'm only telling you now so that I don't feel regrettable for not warning you and end up leaving tonight. At first I considered doing such, but I decided against it. Never the less, I'll be spending the rest of the day packing so if you see me doing so, then you now know what I'll be up to. So, if there are no more questions on the matter, I'd prefer to begin packing my things."

Kano kept his eyes on the little robot in the rabbit costume. He found Pino to be an interesting enigma of human ingenuity. He watched as Pino picked up a rock from off the ground and threw it a good ways in the distance. She then repeated this process several times which is what Kano requested. He was intrigued to see that this mechanical entity had the same strength and force that an actual little girl would have.

"Fascinating," Kano announced quietly. "Now, demonstrate a jump for me." Pino nodded at Kano's request and cheerfully hopped into the air before she fell back down to the ground. Pino appeared to take joy out of this and decided on her own to do it again. Kano remained silent as he watched her.

He tilted his head curiously to see that Pino could actually jump which was not something he was expecting. "This is becoming quite annoying," he told himself. The abrupt comment caused Pino to stop her jumping and turn back towards Kano.

"What's annoying? Re-L always says that when I do something wrong or make her angry."

"No, it's nothing you did," Kano dismissed. "I am merely annoyed with my creations. The Shapes were never able to properly jump or even duck to find cover in a fire fight. When I designed their bodies, I was thinking more along the lines of creating heavy shock infantry rather than dexterous bodies. It is my own fault. As aforementioned, I was attempting to construct a military who's soldiers were reliant on their firearms to kill off the enemy quickly. It was a strategic pain for the Shapes to be sent in to fight those rebels in the city. They could resort to guerrilla strategies while we had to comply with first generation warfare."

Pino found this brief rant to be very confusing. This was mostly due to the fact that Kano was using a larger vocabulary which Pino's youthful mind could not keep up with. "What's a Shape," Pino questioned. "Is it like a square or a triangle?"

Kano's smile grew in a more comical sense when he heard Pino's question. "No, little one," he replied. "When I utilize the term 'shape' I am referring to my own definition of the word rather than the dictionary referral to it. A Shape is a human who is very similar to you in anatomy. They are of my creation. I wanted a realistic master race which was strong enough to receive the gifts of evolution. I gave them beautiful bodies which would act as our next step in evolution."

The little robot did not seem to understand Kano's words. "Hmm? What does anatomy mean? Oh, and what does evolution mean?"

"Anatomy is a term used to describe the make up of an organism's body," Kano informed. "Your anatomy revolves around mechanization. You're a machine where as I am a man. We both have very different anatomies even if we structurally look quite similar. Evolution on the other hand is the concept of a species of animal changing and improving. Evolution is the driving force behind life itself. If a species does not evolve or refuses to do so, then it will eventually die out as a result of its own weakness. In nature an animal will usually evolve on its own, however this is not always the case. You see child, the human race has been known to wait at a standstill as evolution neglects it. The moment a species halts the evolutionary process is usually the first major indication to extinction. I saw this coming and attempted to save a species which in hindsight, did not deserve to be saved. I gave them mechanized bodies just like yours. They were to use my feet to step into the next phase of evolution, yet in all of their ignorance, they resisted me over their own survival. They resisted the coming of the Form which inevitably led to the downfall of my city and of my people. My Shapes attempted to annihilate those who fed off of the ignorance which the majority of the population was already victim to. Those primates destroyed everything I had built out of nothing. Due to certain people, my little machine was broken, my toy soldiers were smashed, and I too was thwarted by ignorance."

Kano would have continued on with his rant had have not had heard footsteps coming up from behind him. He casually looked over his shoulder to see yet another machine which closely resembled a human standing in the distance behind him. "Oh, and who might you be," Kano inquired with a lack of concern in his chosen tone of voice.

Vincent and Re-L were still arguing in the Centzon, or rather, Re-L was arguing and Vincent was quietly eating his meal while he blocked Re-L's annoying words out of his mind as he attempted to enjoy the last day he would be spending on the ship. Re-L was still glaring at him harshly but she was not speaking at the moment. Vincent appeared to be unaware of this. He stopped paying attention a few moments ago and had yet to realize that Re-L was finished speaking. She knew there was no getting through to him at this point. He would most certainly be leaving for good.

Re-L suddenly reached forward with her right hand and snapped her fingers next to Vincent's ear in an attempt to gain his attention. He woke up from his manufactured daydream to see what Re-L was going on about now. "Vincent," she nagged. "You haven't answered a single question of mine. Who told you to leave the ship? What are you planning on doing in the first place?"

"I cannot tell you any of that," Vincent stated with an annoyed sigh. Re-L was more irritated by this sigh than anything else. The fact that he was mocking her only when she could do nothing about it bothered Re-L to no end. "Mr. Kano doesn't want you to know. He only wants enlightened people for his operation. The only way you could really involve yourself is if you were to ideologically evolve as I have. You would have to see things in the same light as Mr. Kano does. At the same time, you would also have to undergo the same changes that I plan adopt."

"Who is this Kano," asked Re-L. "What has he been telling you? Come to think of it, where did you even meet him? And if you want me to 'ideologically evolve' with you, then why didn't you come to me sooner with whatever nonsense that man spouted to you?"

"As aforesaid," responded Vincent. "I cannot give you such details. If you are still unaware of our ideals by now, then it is clear that Mr. Kano does not wish for you to know of them. Likewise, you were obviously not predetermined to ever find out. That being said, you will definitely see the results of his work, but it will be much later on. When you do see those results, you will be given the opportunity to change yourself as everyone else has."

It would seem that every time Vincent opened his mouth to comment on the current events, he was raising far more questions in Re-L's mind and answering none of them. "And just who the hell is everybody? Are you telling me that you've gotten yourself involved with some kind of crazy cult? At this point I shouldn't be surprised if something like that was the case."

Vincent did not have the slightest desire to even respond to this inquiry. He had already vaguely told her that literally everyone would be involved with this Kano person at some point or another. The only question would be when this was taking place. He then placed his hands on the table and pushed himself upwards. "I'm going to start packing now," Vincent began. "Don't worry, I'm only going to take a few small things. The rest of this stuff won't be of any use to me by tomorrow or sometime shortly after. However, there is one thing that belongs to you which I have to ask for. I need that bullet you were planning on using to kill me with."

"You're asking me to hand over the only thing I have to defend myself against you or any other Proxy out there," Re-L questioned in astonishment. "I probably would have thrown it out by now if I had thought about it, but now that you're behaving so suspiciously I'm definitely going to keep it."

"I really need that thing," Vincent insisted. "There's no reason for you to keep it because I'm leaving and I won't be returning. The only reason you've even seen a Proxy out here is because they were all after me. You no longer have any use for that bullet but I do. I don't want your pistol either, I only want the round."

"What do you even plan to do with it," asked Re-L. "If you don't need the gun as well then you're not going to kill yourself? What else could someone need a bullet for if they aren't going to shoot it? It's an advance piece of ammunition but it's still useless without a gun to fire it? I honestly don't even trust you with it. If you hold onto it for to long it might harm you."

Vincent sighed and dropped his shoulders in a defeated manner. "Re-L, I just need the round. I'm going to use it for something but it won't be for shooting anything. You no longer have any use for it so just hand it over. I'll put it to use so it is not to end up as a waste of space." Vincent then held out his right hand, signaling that he was now waiting for Re-L to hand over the round which she had originally planned to kill Vincent with.

Re-L was hesitant at first. She almost revived her argument with Vincent over who should take the FP round. However, she soon became curious with the situation at hand. She decided to finally give the round to Vincent. She reached down to her right hip where her pistol was holstered at all times. She removed it from the holster and unloaded the magazine inside. She tossed the pistol on the table and removed the single round from the clip before placing it in Vincent's hand with an irritated scold present on her face.

"The only reason I'm giving this to you is because I find myself curious," Re-L explained. "I can't help but wonder just what it is that you're trying to achieve not only by leaving me and the others in the dust, but by what you hope to do with this round. I'm going to find out one way or another. So it better not be anything crazy."

"Re-L," Vincent groaned in a hopeless tone. "I'm going to give you one little warning because still do like you. Well, more than like you but that no longer matters. I have to warn you not to follow me. Don't even think about it. Trust me when I say that you don't want to be involved with me anymore. If you follow me, then by the time you catch up with me I'll have changed, both in appearance and in mind from what I've been told. Just leave this place tomorrow and never come back. Go find something else to do with yourself. Go live in one of those random domes or something, but don't stay here. Unless you want to undergo those same changes that I'm taking on, then please don't stay in this place."

The woman in black could not help but lift a cynical eyebrow at Vincent. "How am I suppose to want to undergo these changes if I don't know what they are to begin with? What are you planning on doing? Don't tell me you're going to do something to your body, Vincent." Re-L abruptly widened her eyes after she said this. As soon as she did think of this, these hints Vincent has been giving her were all starting to make sense. "Vincent, what are you going to do? Just tell me now. How will you be changing your body?"

"Perhaps you'll see it one day," Vincent replied. "Well, I'm no longer answering your questions so don't bother asking any more of them. Now, I should really begin packing. As I said before, I'll only take a few small things but I will soon have no need for most of these things anymore. I'll naturally leave you with everything else. You will have need for the food and the ship itself. I on the other hand won't need food for much longer but..."

"Tell me what you're doing," Re-L demanded and slammed her fist on the table in anger. She glared at Vincent who appeared to be rather unfazed by this event which was uncommon for him since he usually shrugged and would often act more squeamish when Re-L became angry with him. The fact that he was now just teasing her with information made her wish she still had that bullet off hand.

Vincent did not answer her which proved his point as he previously said he would not answer a single question beyond what he has already vaguely addressed. He turned away and headed over to the spot on the floor next to Re-L's bed where he usually slept. He knelt down in front of a large blanket and pillow which were still positioned on the ground. He was at least thankful that he would no longer have to put up with sleeping here, and dealing with Re-L accidentally stepping on him every morning when he woke up.

Re-L kept her eyes furiously locked on Vincent as he began gathering up a few small items which he usually kept under his pillow for some odd reason. "You'll come crawling back to me as soon as you realize you don't have any food," Re-L assured herself aloud. Vincent stopped what he was doing and almost reminded Re-L that he would no longer have use for items such as food, but he stopped himself and decided it was best to ignore her baiting strategies.

Kano was now given an opportunity to speak with Pino's guardian, Kristeva. He had been asking her question after question on the topic of what AutoReivs were with great interest. Kristeva had so far answered all of these questions to the best of her ability. Kristeva was now in the process of trying to figure out why exactly this blue haired individual was hanging around in this specific area.

"Now, would you mind answering a few of my questions," asked Kristeva. Kano did not give an audible response but he did nod his head, allowing Kristeva to continue. "I hope I do not come off as rude in this first inquiry, but I simply have to know why you have decided to speak with Pino? Are you here to see someone else? Someone in the ship perhaps?"

"I am waiting on someone," Kano replied calmly. "Does the name Vincent Law ring a bell? He and I are about to leave this place. He told me to wait out here for him until he informed his spoiled friend about such endeavors. However, you should worry not, we will be out of your hair come a few minutes from now."

"Are you saying that Vincent is leaving the Centzon to go with you," Kristeva inquired and Kano nodded once more. "And what might you too be doing?"

Kano's smile grew and he allowed himself to sit upright on the large rock he was still relaxing on. "I cannot tell you such a thing," Kano informed. "Yet I can say that it will be well worth Vincent's time. It will bring about a new era. I must apologize if it is an inconvenience of me to bring Vincent along with me but I cannot preform these future tasks alone, otherwise I would have done so already. However, you should know that your friend Vincent will be contributing greatly to the cause of man's evolution, and the coming of the Present Age."


	2. Naraka

_Note: Quick question for those of you who may know. I'm curious about the end of __Texhnolyze__. Those sepia tinted videos in the final episodes, anyone remember those? My question is, what language were they using when those title screens would appear as they gave their little history lessons? If anyone knows, please let me know. I read somewhere that it was actually some sort of language which I found to be weird because it looked more like a strange font, but apparently not._

* * *

**Naraka**

Vincent forced himself to continue walking down a metallic spiral stairwell. He had been traveling through the massive industrial hole which Kano had led him to about three hours ago before he disappeared. Normally, this would take a few days for someone to walk but due to the current state of the stairs and the fact that Vincent had to climb down the rope of a crane which gave him a good head start. He could not figure out why the stairs were in such a horrid condition. It was as if someone intentionally destroyed them for whatever purpose.

The humanoid entity abruptly came to a clumsy stop just as he nearly fell through a hole in the middle of his path. This was yet another obstacle keeping him one step away from his goal of reviving the Shapes. He wasted no time glaring at the broken off portion of the stairwell, and instead jumped clear over it.

He landed firmly on the other side of the gaping pit. The stairs creaked underneath his feet and he sighed with relief after balancing himself. Vincent promptly let out a sigh and continued onwards with his journey, knowing that this would not be the last obstacle he would have to face on his way to Lux. He braced himself for the next leap.

* * *

Pino skipped gleefully into the lower decks of the Centzon. It was completely empty apart from Re-L who was sitting at the table with her head face down in her arms. Pino immediately stopped her playful running and cautiously walked to the other side of the room while Re-L refused to so much as move in the midst of her own despair.

As soon as Pino was out of Re-L's range, she continued her skipping until she reached her own personal corner of the Centzon where her books, colored pencils, and papers were placed. She had a bag in her hand and placed it on the floor after she too sat down. Pino then began cheerfully placing all of her belongings in the bag.

Pino continued her collecting of her things for the next ten minutes while Re-L did not even acknowledge her presence. "Are you ready," Kristeva's voice questioned from the opposite side of the room. Naturally, Pino turned back to face her guardian and Re-L still did not move from her spot at the table.

"Almost," Pino exclaimed happily. "I just need to find my green pen and I'll be ready! Oh, and where's my melodica?"

"You left it outside near the steering motor," Kristeva informed flatly. "Now, hurry up. We shouldn't take too long, in fact we should have already left by now."

"Okay," Pino groaned and ran off towards Kristeva. She proceeded past Kristeva and straight out the door to fetch her odd instrument in order to throw it in her little black bag as well. Kristeva stepped aside just as Re-L finally looked up to face her.

"What's going on," Re-L asked curiously.

Kristeva averted her attention away from Re-L in order to properly explain herself without having to look directly at her. "I suppose I'd better tell you now rather than later." As soon as this was said, Re-L widened her eyes as she already knew what Kristeva was getting at. She was acting the exact same way Vincent was earlier before he left the ship. "I spoke with Mr. Kano. The man Vincent told you about. He agreed to allow Pino and I to travel with Vincent as long as we do not interfere with their plans."

Re-L adopted a more harsh expression to demonstrate her annoyance with everyone around her. "You can't be serious," she muttered. "You and Pino are also leaving? What the hell happened," Re-L asked in a shout as she suddenly stood up from her seat. "Was I the only one who didn't get an invitation to Kano's slumber party!? Who is this guy, anyway!?"

"I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience to you," Kristeva explained. "But this is the only option I see at the moment which holds a better future for Pino. My first duty is to protect her. Mr. Kano has a vision and it will affect us all. I want to be on the right side of this conflict for Pino's sake. I am most certainly not involving myself and Pino for the same reason Vincent is. This is not what I want for you, him, Pino, or myself but it must be done. We are joining Mr. Kano because at this rate, it just might be the only way to survive in the near future."

"What's about to happen," Re-L asked aggressively. "I deserve to know!"

It took a few seconds before Kristeva finally made her response. "There is a city under the very ground we stand on. The city of Lux. That is where Mr. Kano is from. In that city is an immobilized army. Vincent and Mr. Kano have plans to reactivate that army. This army consists of a massive force of mechanized humans. That is all Mr. Kano was willing to tell me, and that was all Vincent was aloud to say as well. I'm not sure what the plan to do after they've restored power to Mr. Kano's armies, but I can assume they will expand to the surface as soon as they're ready."

Re-L narrowed her eyes at Kristeva with an all new question in mind. "And just what the hell is a mechanized human suppose to be?"

"I've told you all that I can," Kristeva informed. "I'm sorry, Re-L. I truly am. I wish I could tell you more but I would be putting Pino's life at stake. I hope you understand our situation. I would have been satisfied with Vincent turning away from Kano's words but alas, he has not. Therefore, I must consider how dangerous it would be to end up on the wrong side of the coming conflict. You've seen it yourselves. Those men from space come down and land on the surface, only to die off from the poisonous air. The last thing they will be able to fend off is an organized army. I wish you the best of luck, Re-L. I also hope that one day, you too will understand what is truly going on. As Mr. Kano told me personally, only then will you be allowed to live in Lux."

"Kristeva, let's go," Pino shouted from outside.

Kristeva turned around but did not leave as one might expect. "Don't be rude," she ordered. "Come down here and say goodbye to Re-L."

Re-L adopted a sour look on her face as she heard Pino audibly groaning. The little mechanical girl skipped down to the inner deck and glared at Re-L. "Bye," Pino said with a lack of emotion. It would be inaccurate to say that Re-L was surprised by Pino's complete willingness to leave her far more eagerly than Vincent was. The two were polar opposites and downright hated each other on some days while they tolerated each other on other days. It was only natural that Pino would be ready to leave Re-L behind and never think twice about the matter, but it still shocked Re-L greatly.

The black haired woman knelt down to properly place herself on Pino's level. She was about to say something when Kristeva interrupted her. "Pino. I believe you drew a picture which you wanted to give to Re-L. Do it now while you still have the time."

Pino nodded and reached into her little bag which contained everything she herself owned. She then pulled out a large piece of paper and shoved it towards Re-L. The gothic woman looked down and took the paper. She examined it closely, only to find that the picture was a well drawn depiction of, Vincent, Kristeva, Pino of course, and one other individual who Re-L could not identify. She tilted her head as her mined fully processed Pino's artwork. The four people in this picture were all holding each other's hands. Kristeva stood on the right hand side of the paper while Pino stood next to her. Just to Pino's left, holding her left hand was what appeared to be Vincent. One thing Re-L noticed was that Pino and Vincent were both wearing identical rabbit costumes in this illustration. Re-L then settled her eyes on the mysterious person holding Vincent's left hand on the opposite side of the paper from Kristeva. It was the depiction of a young man wearing a brown robe and had long blue hair. He smiled just as brightly as everyone else, although this was probably just a detail Pino added in on her own accord. The one person Re-L could not seem to find in this picture was herself.

She held it out for Pino to see and pointed her index finger to the unidentified, blue haired individual. "Pino," Re-L questioned. "Who is this person right here? The one with the weird hair color next to Vincent."

Pino smiled proudly at her work and shut her eyes with mindless joy. "That's Kano," she exclaimed which almost instantaneously placed a silent scold on Re-L's face. She lifted a furious eyebrow at the clueless AutoReiv in response. "He's really nice to me," Pino cheered. "He teaches me things! He taught me a bunch of new words as well!"

Re-L only then noticed another detail about Pino's artwork. At the very top of the page, written in white was the word 'Evolution.' "And why are you and Vincent dressed in the same costume," inquired Re-L.

"That's because Vince keeps saying he's gonna look just like me thanks to Kano," Pino informed.

"_What_!?"

"It's true," Pino insisted. "Vince told me all about it. He said Kano is going to help him evolve. He said that he would look more like me the next time I see him!"

With her mouth gaping open wide in shock, Re-L slowly looked up to Kristeva. "What were you saying earlier about an army of mechanized humans?"

"I'm sorry once more," Kristeva stated. "But I do not have that information. Goodbye, Re-L Mayer. Again, Pino and I are only joining them because it is the best way for me to keep her safe as my master would have wanted. I neither disagree nor agree with Kano's words specifically. We only want to survive."

"Fine," Re-L muttered before averting her eyes back to Pino. "And I guess I'm not in this picture?"

"Nope," Pino said with a shake of her head. "Mr. Kano said you can't come with us so I didn't draw you in it."

At this point, Re-L had finally heard enough. With betrayal reflecting vividly in her blue eyes, she forced her self onto her feet and walked away. "Get out of my sight. But you can be sure you haven't seen the last of me. And you'd better tell Vincent I said that before he tries to start some sort of war," Re-L warned. Kristeva did not say anything back. She merely grabbed Pino by the hand and escorted her out of the Centzon.

* * *

Hours later, when the day finally came to an end, Vincent had already made his way down the broken stairwell and into the heart of a long lost underworld. He had just made his way out of an odd gateway into this underground purgatory. That gateway was filled with seemingly endless vertical pillars. Vincent was now firmly out of that area and currently found himself walking down an empty street.

He could hear a faint wind chime in the distance as it sounded off. This ghostly instrument sent a shiver down his spine. The strangest thing was that this wind chime was producing sounds yet there was no wind to fuel its movement. Vincent tried not to think about what is truly causing that wind chime to move if there is no wind present in the underground city. Vincent looked around to the dark city now surrounding him. He could already tell this place had not seen even a spark of light for at least a few hundred years. Other than this wind chime which was now fading away as he moved deeper and deeper into the city, the only noise he could hear was coming from his own two feet as they moved along on the dusty old ground.

Vincent calmly walked through what was now becoming more and more like a well preserved tomb. He stopped abruptly and turned towards a nearby storefront in the distance. He could see through one of the windows and noticed that everything was just as the previous owners left it. The only thing missing in this store, was a group of people to make it appear a little less lonely than it truly was.

The Proxy turned back to face the chosen path which would undoubtedly lead him to a fate much more preferable than wasting away on that cramped ship with the others. Just as he was about to continue walking, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Standing on the left hand sidewalk of the road a few meters away from him was what appeared to be a seven or eight foot tall man. He was slender and his frame was awkward. His body was solid white. He had a large upper torso but only what looked to Vincent like a large spine acting as the bridge between his upper body and his waist. This man wore a metal mask with one red eye on the left side of his head. The final thing Vincent spotted on this man's ominous metallic body was a large, green, grub worm-like object. This was the only thing on this man's body which was moving. It almost looked to be breathing.

It was only then that the machine realized that Vincent was standing in front of him. "Hey," the mechanized man muttered. His helmet created a metallic filter in his voice. He spoke in a tired tone as if he were exhausted for whatever reason. "You don't look like one of those phantasms I see all the time. You must be alive, but the only living people here are Shapes. How did you find this place? You must be from the surface so how did you even find a way down here?"

"Kano led me down here," Vincent explained. "He told me all about this place. I'm here now to restore power to the Obelisk but in order to do that, Mr. Kano told me that I have to find someone by the name of Bunken Kohakura. Have you seen him? Is he around here?"

"I see," the Shape began with relief in his voice. "Master Kano still hasn't forgotten about us. Well, the last time I heard, Kohakura was deployed in Lux with a squad of people to guard the Obelisk when the civilians started going crazy. My guess is, he and his team were on their way to the Obelisk when we lost the ability to move."

"Right," Vincent nodded and looked around. He still could not see the Obelisk from his current position among the skyline of the city. "Where do I need to go to find the Obelisk? Please tell me it's nearby."

"Sorry," another voice interjected from behind. Vincent quickly twirled around to see who was interrupting the conversation. He then spotted an old man standing a good distance away from him. He wore a black suit, black hat and held a cane in his right hand. He also had brown eyes but Vincent could not get a clear look at his hair. "But you're a long way from Lux," the man informed.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Goto," the man stated flatly. "And by the looks of things. You're just another one of those surface dwellers who wants to nab a slice of power for himself by using Kano's army to take over the area. Typical, I suppose."

Vincent found this comment to be rather curious. "What do you mean?"

"You think you are the only one who's heard of the legendary army hidden away in a near mythical underground city," asked Goto. "I've seen a total of six young boys, just like you, who have ventured down here to try to control the Shapes. Never once have I seen them succeed either. Perhaps they die of exhaustion before they even arrive in Lux, or they give up after they realize they don't have the knowledge to repair the Obelisk. Either way, this city has been in the dark for several hundred years and that's how it needs to remain."

The man in red placed his hands in his pockets and took a step back. "That won't be the case for long," Vincent confidently stated even if he was slightly nervous when speaking to a total stranger, let alone an apparition from a lost world. "Now, earlier you said I'm not in Lux. Where am I if I'm not actually in the city?"

"You're in Gabe right now," Goto said quietly. "This is a smaller city on the hill. It use to act as Lux's adviser if that would be a good analogy. This is where the Seer was born. A few kilometers that way," Goto contained and pointed behind himself, northward to try and help Vincent visualize the layout of this underworld. "You'll find the enclave where the Class use to reside. Directly south of here, at the foot of the hill is Lux. Only at the very center of Lux, which is a massive city compared to everything else down here, you'll find the Obelisk."

"Uh, thank you," Vincent replied with sincerity. He was about to walk away when Goto continued speaking which caused Vincent to stop in his tracks.

"You know? You remind me a lot of that boy, Ichise. I don't know why, but I get the same vibe from you as I did from him. He ran off to Lux when it was pointless in doing so. He was safe on the surface world, but he forced himself to come back to help whoever he could. The only difference between you and him other than mannerisms would be that I know you have no intention of helping anyone. Oh well, it's none of my business. However, I will be surprised if I actually see the lights flicker back on. I will most certainly be impressed if you find a way to breathe some sort of life into my city."

* * *

Kano walked along a vacant road, although this one was not surrounded by buildings as the one Vincent was traveling on. This road was positioned along the hill. Kano was currently walking down the hill and could easily see the skyline of the dark city known as Lux. The hour was already growing late and Kano was becoming impatient. He aggressively tapped his right index finger against his metallic thigh in an attempt to pass the time as he waited for the Shapes to move again.

The ghostly blue haired leader of the Shapes stopped in his tracks as he spotted a figure standing far down the road. It was the figure of a young man, a teenager at the very youngest. He wore an ominous brown uniform and headdress which covered his eyes. Kano's smile grew as he realized that his right hand man, his assistant, his adviser, Zashi had returned to him.

"Sir," Zashi began in his usual emotionless tone of voice. "I see you've finally returned. Does that mean we will be able to venture out onto the surface, now?"

"My loyal Zashi," Kano sighed. "You have decided to linger here as well?"

"Of course, sir," Zashi confirmed. "I cannot leave the movement in such a crucial moment. Just like you, sir. I too will not allow mere death to halt my progress in completing my duties as we prepare to achieve our unified vision for the future."

"On the topic of our plans," Kano began. "Is everything in place? I cannot stress the dire need for everything to be exactly as I requested it."

"Worry not, sir," Zashi reassured. "I've taken care of all the objectives you had planned for me. However, it is important to note that your plan cannot be fully achieved at the moment. I have done everything I could, but there was one thing I could not figure out."

Kano opened his golden eyes but did not seem angry at all even if he might secretly be a little worried by Zashi's words. "What do you mean?"

"Sir, the problem with your plan is that there is no clear way out of Lux. There is no possible way we can hope to send our entire army up to the surface when the ventilation area above Gabe is completely destroyed. It's one thing to go down it, but another to climb up it."

"But I specifically said that we need to focus on fixing the train tunnel to the surface," Kano reminded. "I already planned on sending the Shapes through the train system up to the surface. I located one of those domed cities built directly on top of the train tracks several kilometers from our general area. We were going to smash the train into the city and allow the troops to invade from there."

"Is that city in range of the Obelisk," asked Zashi.

Kano nodded with confidence. "You underestimate my Shapes. Unlike the Texhnolyzation produced by that clown of a doctor. My Shapes can operate exactly 500 square kilometers away from the Obelisk. That range is decreased only by 300 square kilometers when they are on the surface. I was initially counting on them fighting a much grander conflict, especially when on the surface. That is why I implanted more expensive transmitters into their bodies when you and several others advised against it."

"I see, sir," Zashi said submissively. "Your genius has proven superior, again."

"Indeed it has, Zashi. Indeed it has." Kano then crossed his arms and closed his eyes once more in a relaxed manner. "Now, tell me about your problem, Zashi. I would hope it is nothing crucial or harmful to my plan, but by your previous words, that appears to be the case, is it not?"

"Actually, it is," Zashi insisted and shamefully looked away. "The problem is that the train tunnel which gives access to the surface has been destroyed."

Kano only slightly opened his eyes at this. "I was under the assumption that the cave in would be easy to clear out with the help from the rifles I built for the Shapes. They should be able to disintegrate those rocks until nothing is left."

"That's correct, sir." Zashi agreed. "However, the problem is not the damage to the tunnel. I went to personally inspect the area of the cave in and found that there was also damage to the train engine. It exploded, sir. There is no way to operate it. Not only did it explode but there are several large boulders on top of it. I'm afraid, there is no way to repair the engine."

"If that's the case, then have you searched for another one?"

Zashi tilted his head in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"Have you begun searching for the spare engine," Kano repeated. "I guarantee you, there is a spare engine lying around somewhere. We only need to find it and place it on the rails. Are you saying you haven't even attempted to find it?"

"I was unaware of a spare engine," Zashi admitted. "However, with this new found knowledge, I will head to the city of the Class and wait for the Obelisk to be repaired. When the power has been restored, I shall search through the archives to find records of such a thing. I will return with the location of the train as soon as possible, sir."

"Good, Zashi." Kano took a step to the right, gesturing for Zashi to continue walking in the direction of the fortress where the Class use to reside. "You are dismissed. As soon as you find the location of the engine, I will have soldiers come by and tow it to the train station. It's only a matter of time, now. We are on the verge of breaking through to the surface world. I assure you, Zashi, great things await us in the world above."

Zashi bowed his head formally at his leader to demonstrate his understanding of Kano's words. "Very well, sir. I look forward to it."

* * *

Vincent kept moving until he was firmly out of Gabe. He was panting heavily, completely exhausted from his long tread through this empty underworld. He was now on his way to Lux even if Vincent was tempted to collapse from exhaustion and lay there on the ground for the remainder of his life. The only reason he forced himself forward was due to Kano's charismatic words still bouncing around in his head with the consistency of a rubber ball.

He halted his stride as the Proxy neared the vicinity of a rather large house. The house was almost as large as a modest manor. It was in a much cleaner condition than the buildings in Gabe, although, he would soon find out that Gabe itself was very well kept when comparing it to the nearly decimated city of Lux.

Vincent eyed up the house. He could see nothing through the countless windows on the walls as the house was obviously very dark inside. He glanced towards the road which he should be taking. Vincent knew Kano would be displeased if he took too long in finding Kohakura but he was curious about this place. Vincent almost walked towards this building but he stopped himself just before he managed head up to the entrance. "I'll come back when I have the time," Vincent told himself. For some odd reason, he wanted to know what was inside this massive home which was probably owned by an extremely wealthy person at one point.

Four more hours would be wasted. The time most certainly did not decay as slowly as Lux has been. The city was still standing. It was almost exactly as the people left it. Immobilized Shapes stood like statues frozen in still frames. It was as if time stood still only for them but moved and ticked around them. The entire underground plane Lux was built in had become nothing more than one great tomb for a population of lost souls.

Bunken Kohakura was one of many motionless Shapes trapped in this silent and dark world. His right arm was missing and his left was damaged rather badly. Regardless of his current situation, a smile was present on his face, accept for a few occasions when his face would twitch randomly. This smile was not forced, it was a true smile. The same could be said for everyone else. All of the Shapes had the same satisfied look on their face. "As I said long ago," Kohakura muttered as he noticed someone walking up the street towards him out of the corner of his eye. Kohakura looked up and turned towards the young man who was approaching him.

"I told him. I told Ichise when I last saw him," Kohakura insisted. The mystery man came to a stop in front of Kohakura. His eyes were closed shut. He wore a red outfit and had a head covered in messy black hair. "There was a reason we chose these bodies over our own. I originally did not want one. I was blind to Master Kano's true work. My plan was to join the winning side and that was it. Only after this body was forced upon me, did I understand what a gift it truly was."

Kohakura shifted his attention down to his feet, or at least he attempted to catch a gaze of them but he could not see them due to the protruding life support pod in his chest. "We are shaped in a unified form. The vanguard of evolution, as Master Kano likes to refer to us as. Forever, we remain constructed by the will of the Form. We were granted the ability to live for as long as the sun refuses to die out. All that's left to do now is think, until evolution comes for us again. We're still waiting here."

Just as Kohakura was about to continue his rambling, he remembered that an all new face was standing next to him. "Uh, I'm sorry," Kohakura stated tiredly. "I get lost in thought every once and awhile. Tell me, are you Vincent Law by any chance? The one Master Kano told me to be on the look out for?"

The stranger smiled and nodded his head proudly. "Yeah. I'm here to get you guys moving again, but Kano tells me I need your help to repair the Obelisk."

"I can do it," Kohakura reassured. "I just need an alternative power source to get myself moving. Then we can worry about the Obelisk."

"No problem," Vincent replied. "Mr. Kano told me where to look for an alternate battery. I'll bring it to you right away!"

* * *

Re-L frantically steered the Centzon as she tried her best to search for a landmark that might indicate where Vincent, Pino, and Kristeva have headed to yet she has failed to find anything so far. She glared at the bleak horizon but still, no sign of anyone.

Only by chance did Re-L spot an unusual figure on a hill to her right as she passed it by. She quickly turned and widened her eyes to see a young girl standing on the top of the small hill. Re-L immediately slowed the Centzon down to gain a better look at her. She wore a red coat and had vivid red hair, but that was all Re-L could see from her current position.

"Hey," Re-L called out but received no answer. She was about to stop the Centzon completely when she realized that the girl was pointing with her left hand southward. It took no time at all for Re-L to understand what this silent gesture meant. This little girl appeared to be helping her, when everyone else had abandoned her to be with Kano and his army of Shapes. Re-L smiled thankfully as she left the girl behind. She picked up her speed and continued onward with the hope of finding Vincent, before he did something 'silly.'


	3. Wake

**Wake**

Re-L continued her journey through the wasteland, following the mysterious redheaded girl who would wave to the direction she needed to go from the shadows. She kept her eyes on the horizon, always waiting for the girl to make yet another appearance. She had been piloting the Centzon on straight path for awhile now and she had not seen the ghostly girl directing her yet.

The entire time she kept her mind away from the worst case scenarios as to what Vincent was going to do to himself if she were not able to stop him in time. Re-L's eyes were visibly glazed over, she was properly piloting the ship, but not really paying attention to what she was doing. This would prove to be a mistake as she failed to realize she was quickly approaching a massive hole in the middle of the earth's surface just ahead of her.

After just a split second of starring at it however, Re-L was luckily able to notice subconsciously that something was wrong about the horizon. She quickly snapped herself back to reality and let out a gasp as she noticed the hole in the ground. Re-L attempted to steer the Centzon away from the gaping void in the ground but it was far too late for the ship to react in such a fast manner. It only turned slightly to the left which was not what Re-L wanted at all. She was about to activate those harpoon-esque gadgets on the ship which were used as a sort of emergency break but she panicked instead and abruptly through herself overboard and onto the unforgiving earth.

She landed rather hardly against the rocky surface while the Centzon proceeded to speed on ahead, promptly flying straight over the edge of this massive hole, completely disappearing in the darkness. Meanwhile, Re-L was busy rolling to a stop on the ground. Her left hip painfully landed on a jagged rock which did not break any of her bones, but it did do it's toll on her. When she finally did come to as top, she remained motionless and stiff. It would only be a brief second or two before Re-L's vision faded to black, and she suddenly lost consciousness in one of the worst times possible.

* * *

Vincent was sitting against the wall of a building just behind the immobilized Kohakura. Vincent was actually sleeping at this point. He had just returned from yet another decent walk through the desolate city of Lux in search of a strange mechanism Kohakura requested he find. At the moment, Kohakura was so thrilled thanks to the object Vincent had retrieved for him. There was a black metal bracer on each of Kohakura's three remaining limbs, even his damaged right arm. There was also what appeared to be a large battery or similar piece of technology strapped to his waist which the bracers were connected to. It was by this piece of equipment, and by it alone which allowed Kohakura to move his arm around as he was currently doing.

After longer than he could recall, he was finally able to move again. With a smile on his face, he casually lifted his arm in the air and surprisingly, his upper torso followed suit in this motion. He then twisted his body to the left, although his legs could still actually change positions since they were rooted to the ground. However, Kohakura was able to bend his knees and even turn them ever so slightly without the help of his feet.

He had been practicing these motions for hours. He and the other Shapes must have been trapped down here for at least a century or two. It was only natural that his brain would have to relearn how to operate his metallic body. While Kohakura continued to teach himself all over again, Vincent found enough time to take a decent nap before he and his new companion would be sent off to revive the city of Lux.

Kohakura would allow another thirty minutes to pass to ensure that his body was fully functional again, and he wanted to give Vincent some more time to rest before they started their long journey which technically had not even begun yet. Kohakura looked down with a smile on his face and opened his mouth to speak. "Boy," he ordered which immediately evoked a stir in Vincent although he did not open his eyes right away. "Come on. Wake up, now. It's time to get this ball rolling."

Vincent then forced himself awake at the sound of these words, and sat up to properly face his cybernetic comrade. "Okay," he sighed tiredly. "Are you able to move already, though? Maybe you need some more time to..."

"Time," Kohakura questioned in surprise. His smile shifted to a more comical one once this was said. "For one thing, you were asleep for a good while. On the other hand, I don't need anymore time standing still than the tortoise needs time to catch the hare. Now, let's get moving," he stated in a more firm tone of voice. Vincent then proceeded to watch as Kohakura lifted his single arm up and clenched his green hand into a fist. A retractable blade shot out of the top of his hand in response.

Kohakura promptly knelt down, lowering the blade to his feet in the process. He then began sawing through all of the small roots which had grown into his feet and legs. It would only take a few minutes before Vincent stood up as Kohakura cut the last root, thus breaking his seemingly eternal prison. Without hesitation, Kohakura stood up tall and disarmed the blade on his wrist.

"Vincent Law," Kohakura stated with relief and turned to face the man he was addressing with extreme satisfaction in his eyes. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that. Now, come on. We still have much to do. We need to start by repairing the Obelisk, from there we need to go up to the actual power station and switch everything on from there."

"Wait," Vincent requested, stopping Kohakura in his tracks. "I thought the Obelisk was the source of power in Lux."

"No sir," Kohakura dismissed. "Think of the Obelisk as more of a transmitter for Wi-Fi or something along those lines. It simply distributes electricity not only to this entire underground region, but it powers our texhnolyzed bodies. Granted, the only way you'll be getting one of these bodies is by rebuilding the Obelisk, but without that power plant turned on, and without people monitoring it, we won't get much of anywhere. So, just follow my lead and we'll have this done in no time."

It would take no time at all for the duo to reach the Obelisk with Kohakura leading the way. Vincent took mental notes whenever he might see a specific landmark to help him gain a better idea of the layout of Lux since he would probably be here for a long time, especially if he is able to take one of Kano's beautiful bodies before Re-L has a chance to crush his dream.

Vincent snapped out of his little daydream he was locked in after being entrance by the ghostly silence around him. The only thing that actually drew him back to reality was running into Kohakura and falling straight down into a sitting position after the Shape randomly stopped without warning. Vincent sighed and looked up to see what the problem was. "Uh... sorry, Mr. Kohakura."

"Try to pay attention," Kohakura requested without turning around. He then pointed towards the area ahead of himself. Vincent leaned to the right to see what Bunken was referring to. He then spotted the Obelisk just at the end of the road looming over him ever so silently. "This what I need you to do," Kohakura explained. Vincent then stood up and listened carefully to the following instructions.

"There is a hatch at the foot of the stairs leading up to the Obelisk. I want you to open it and climb the ladder down into the actual room that hatch leads to. It's actually a maintenance office and there are plenty of tools there for us to use in fixing the Obelisk. You go down there and see what you can find, I'll survey the damage while you gather up the tools."

* * *

A few more hours would pass, and while Vincent and Kohakura definitely had a plan of action, Re-L was doing everything based on impulse. As Vincent and Kohakura worked hard to repair the Obelisk which was in worse condition then what Kohakura originally anticipated, Re-L was still just trying to survive. She woke up about three hours ago and her body was still recovering from her injuries, but regardless she pressed on down a spiral and halfway destroyed metal staircase which led straight through the hole and most likely to the location Vincent, Pino, and Kristeva ran off to.

She kept walking down the same metallic path Vincent took to reach the city of Lux. Although, Re-L herself had no idea what lurked in the bowls of this earth. All she knew is that this must be the place Vincent used to do whatever it was he was being convinced to do. As Re-L moved down the industrial rabbit hole she slowly stopped paying attention to the obstacles in front of her which was not exactly the best of ideas. What was probably out of hateful karma, Re-L learned her lesson rather abruptly when she stepped into void with no solid surface underneath her and fell forward.

Re-L let out a scream as she fell down, right into a pool of water. Luckily for her, she was not too high up and it did not hurt her at all. Re-L immediately forced herself to the surface and took in a gasp of air. Re-L wasted no time and swam to a nearby dry platform of concrete and hoisted herself onto it. She then rolled over, lying face up on the concrete floor. Another lucky thing for Re-L, even if she did not notice it was the water she just fell in for the most part was not stagnate or otherwise unsafe for her to be caught inside as one might expect from an untouched water supply. It was flowing consistently but Re-L had no idea where it was going.

She kept her eyes on the dark ceiling for the longest time. She only averted her attention away from it when she heard footsteps walking up to her from out of the darkness. Re-L turned her head painfully and instantly spotted a pair of boots situated just in front of her face. Re-L followed these boots upwards with her eyes until she noticed that they were being worn by a pair of feminine legs. Re-L then shifted her eyes up to meet the face of the same girl who was guiding her all the way to this underground realm.

The girl stood only about five feet tall, much shorter than Re-L and did not look to be more of 14 years of age. She was the same girl Re-L saw earlier who had the red pigtails and maroon jacket covering most of her body. The girl held an odd looking fox mask in her arms which Re-L noticed but was not too terribly interested in.

"It's you," Re-L muttered frailly. "Who are you?"

The girl took her sweet time in making a response. She simply stared at Re-L for a few minutes before uttering one simple word. "Ran."

"..._Ran_," Re-L whispered. "That's your name?" The redhead responded only with a gentle nod.

"Well, Ran," Re-L continued with a smile. "By any chance, have you seem my friend Vincent go through here?" Once again, Ran nodded her head. "Can you lead me to him?" As expected, Ran nodded yet again. With that last question answered, Re-L forced herself into a sitting position and began the painful process of standing up. "Alright, then lead the way."

* * *

In an old and rather dark opera house which was positioned in the city of Lux, Kano himself sat on what was quite literally a throne. He sat in the middle of the stage reading over a large map which he had drawn out during all his time of not being able to do anything more than wait. This theater was enormous with several different floors for the audience to view the stage from. Surprisingly, Kano was not alone in this otherwise very lonely building which had been abandoned long before the city of Lux ever became the ghost town that it is now. The audience was consistent entirely of immobilized Shapes who occupied every seat in the house.

Just behind Kano was an odd looking statue of a woman with two heads, although the head on the left head of this strange statue was missing completely. In fact, it was not actually statue at all. It was a metal mannequin. In essence, it was actually a Shape body, however, it was not the military bodies all of the Shapes in the city were equipped with. Then again, this was more of an artistic body since it could not be described as a civilian grade one.

Kano remained silent, a blissful smile had plastered itself onto his face as he relished in the quiet world around him, although it was about as comforting as the silence in a tomb. At his mechanical feet were two more strange enigmas. Sitting just next to Kano on the ground was yet another non-military Shape body. This one was clearly meant to be an overweight woman with no head. The Shape held its stagnate hands out in front of its metal gut as if it were holding a crystal ball even though they were completely empty. The other object lying on the ground was a lot more morbid. It was a fully decayed corpse, nothing more than bleached white skeleton. However, it was fair to note that this corpse wore the same clothes and had the same pair of robotic legs as Kano. Another interesting thing was that this corpse had no head. The skull was lying a few feet behind Kano's chair on top of what appeared to be a massive red stain on the stage.

This silence would only last for a few more minutes before a familiar little robot burst through the doors of the opera house with two people following behind her. The first being another familiar robot. This one depicting a grown woman in a black dress and the other figure was Kano's loyal comrade Zashi, who had most likely led the two here. Kano immediately recognized the two robots to be Pino and her guardian Kristeva. It was about time they arrived.

"Kano," Pino called out cheerfully and ran down the aisle towards the stage. "We made it and we didn't let Re-L come like you told us to. Can I see Vince now? He still hasn't played with me today!"

"Now, now," Kano began as if he were a nagging mother. As usual, his voice was heard in a serene monotone. He did not so much as open his eyes when speaking to Pino. "Let's not be so hasty. Vincent is very busy right now. After he is done with the task at hand, I will grant him that beautiful body he has boasted about for the past week. Once he has grown accustomed to it, you can see him, but until then you must be patient."

"Aw," Pino groaned. "So, what's Vince gonna look like when he gets his new body? Will he still have black hair? Will he still be tall or will he be short like me?"

"Vincent will be much taller than he is now," Kano informed. "And he will still have the same colored hair. His head will be completely intact, however, we will sever it from his old and outdated body. We shall then attach his head to an all new body. When the process is finished," Kano continued and pointed towards the crowd of cybernetic humans who sat in the audience of this lost opera house, "Vincent will look like them."

Pino turned around as did Kristeva to examine the examples which Kano gave them for reference. While they were busy looking at the Shapes, Zashi stepped up to address Kano. "Sir," he began which naturally caused the blue haired individual to open one curious eye. "I did as you requested and brought these two individuals here. May I now return to my previous task of finding the spare train engine?"

"Of course," Kano replied. "Although, I am curious. Have you actually found any leads on its whereabouts yet?"

"Not at the moment, sir," Zashi said with an unfortunate shake of his head. "I still have not had the chance to look through all of the probable locations in Gabe or even begin my search for that matter."

"That's fine, Zashi," Kano claimed and nodded his head in satisfaction. "You may go now. Be sure to report back when you have found the engine."

* * *

Re-L kept walking through an odd structure. She left the main entrance which she practically fell face first in a little while ago. This area was extremely vast and filled with rows and rows of stone columns. She had a hopeless expression on her face as she forced herself further and further into this dark labyrinth with only the illumination of her flashlight and the ghost of a young girl who lived centuries ago to keep her company. She saw the wreckage of the Centzon before she began her journey to the find Vincent in this strange and empty underworld. It was obviously beyond the point of repair since it fell down such a great distance. It was nothing but a pile of scrap metal when Re-L found it. Not only was this the case but the reason Re-L fell into that water filled canal rather than walked down their via the stairs, was because past a certain point, there was no way up or down that hole. The stairs were destroyed just at the bottom of the city and as a result, Re-L had no idea how she was going to get out of here. She was very stressed because she was not even able to salvage any food from the Centzon since it was so damaged and destroyed.

Just when all hope was quite obviously lost down an endless rabbit hole, Re-L suddenly lit up with emotion when she turned down a wrong path and when she walked past that first column, she practically jumped out of her skin to see one of the immobile Shapes standing in the darkness. Of course, Re-L had no idea what a Shape was and as a result of her ignorance, she assumed it was just a broken combat AutoReiv and let out a sigh of relief. She still found it curious that such a machine was locked down here in this pit of darkness. There was no nearby Dome, in actuality there was, but not to Re-L's knowledge.

She could not help but notice when staring at this one eyed 'robot' that there was an odd green pod protruding out of its chest. It was also the only thing on this entity which was visibly moving as it both inhaled and exhaled rather slowly. Re-L lifted an eyebrow in response to this quizzical sight. "What the hell kind of AutoReiv is this? I never saw this model in Romdeau."

"It's not a robot," Ran's voice muttered in monotone from behind which caused Re-L to jump once more but she almost instantaneously recovered from the shock of hearing Ran's voice out of the blue in such a manner.

"What do you mean, it's not," asked Re-L. "It's a humanoid made completely out of metal."

Ran lifted her hands up to her mask and slowly removed it from her face before speaking again. "It isn't a robot. It's a person with a metal body."

"That's impossible," Re-L nagged and pointed to the Shape with aggression. "The torso is made of metal and so is the head."

"No, it's not," Ran insisted quietly.

Now, Re-L was extremely curious. She turned back to the Shape only to see that the head had actually moved. It was now looking straight at her.

"I'm not a robot, you surface dwelling hillbilly," exclaimed an extremely agitated voice. Re-L took a defensive step back when she heard this. The voice was undoubtedly produced by a male. It almost sounded as if it was filtered but then again, since he was literally talking through a metallic helmet, that was to be expected. "Take off my helmet and see for yourself if you don't believe us."

Re-L did not say anything. She merely gulped and held out her hand towards the Shape's face. She then placed both hands on the helmet and lifted it off, immediately allowing it to drop to the ground afterward. She widened her eyes to see that it was true, there was the face of a young man, probably about her age, now glaring at her.

She felt despair rising in her body at the mere sight of this Shape. "So, this is what Vincent wants to become," she thought to herself. "He wants to throw away his body and adopt this cybernetic mesh. Why? Why does he want to destroy himself? When Vincent returned from Romdeau, he and Ergo Proxy were technically reunified, but that doesn't mean he might want to gain dominance. Is he trying to kill off the Proxy half of himself? Either way, I can't let it happen. I won't let him be reduced to this type of creature."

With that in mind, Re-L quickly turned around to face Ran. "Take me to him," she ordered and luckily, Ran knew what she meant by this otherwise extremely vague statement.

* * *

Meanwhile, Vincent himself was pretty determined not to cooperate with anyone other than Kano and his servants. He only seemed to be interested in one thing, installing himself into one of those bodies. He demonstrated this as he stumbled through an old power plant a few blocks away from the Obelisk. It was enormous and Vincent was having enough trouble finding what Kohakura told him to look for as is. The size of this place simply was not helping. As he moved, he held onto a large black rifle of sorts. It was designed in an odd way and Vincent could barely hold it upright. He also had no idea how to use it since it was far more complex than that little pistol he was equipped with while he was in Romdeau.

Vincent soon found the place he was looking for. He was lost in a series of winding corridors, occasionally seeing a skeleton lying on the floor or sitting at a desk in an office. At the end of this hall, however, there was a door which was labeled, '_Generator-__F_.' Vincent spent the better part of an hour roaming around in this building, switching on the different generators and other mechanisms which keep this facility running. Of course, the only reason Vincent of all people new how to operate such archaic machinery was due to Kano's voice which filled his head.

All along the way, Vincent kept hearing another voice. This voice belonged to the other entity in his mind which he had now gained superiority over, otherwise, he would not be working with these people from the underground city. Ergo pleaded with him constantly to turn back and ignore Kano's requests, but Vincent refused to back down. Kano's argument was simply far more appealing and convincing than Ergo's. Why would he want to sacrifice the opportunity for a superior body which will enable him to live until the end of time, even underneath the rays of burning sunlight, when the only thing he would gain out of doing so would be to keep Ergo alive?

"Shut up," Vincent muttered as he pressed on through the dark, metal hallway.

* * *

Ergo watched all of this from the center of a black void in what use to be his own conscious realm, now completely overshadowed by a personality created originally for the soul purpose of protecting Ergo, and allowing the Proxy to cower in the most shameful ways possible to avoid his responsibilities. In actuality, this ironic state of being was probably a fate he deserved.

That being said, Ergo was still not alone in this world. Just behind him, an image of Kano sat in his throne in the opera house of Lux. Kano was only planning on visiting Vincent's mind for short session to gloat in Ergo's face about his victory over Vincent's change in ideology.

He sat there with his usual smile on his face while three mechanical entities stood around him. They occasionally made swift movements, changing their positions and demonstrating the flexibility and capabilities of Kano's metal bodies.

"What is the purpose of a creature like you," asked Kano. "I have wondered this since I first met Vincent. You serve no purpose in my eyes other than dying off. You are as pointless as a louse. In a sense, you remind me of those ignorant souls who fought me when my only goal was to create a beautiful humanity. These neanderthals thought it best if they ignored my ideals. If I had only succeeded in my original goals, parasites such as the creature in front of me would never have existed."

* * *

Vincent entered the room which featured the last generator in the plant. He was busy flipping on every little switch and turning every crank he could find. At last, he made it to the last one, a small little button which manages the turbines in this section of the plant. He could almost instantly hear the results of his work as the sound of industrial blades swiftly filled his hears.

"Oh," a familiar voice stated from behind. "Looks like you turned everything back on. I'm glad I finished work on the Obelisk early. From the looks of things, you might not have found your way out of this place."

Vincent instinctively turned around to see who was speaking to him. He then spotted Kohakura standing there just inside the doorway. Kohakura smiled and continued speaking. "Good job. I suppose I won't be needing this thing anymore," he stated as he looked down to the battery attached to his body. He then began working to remove it while Vincent watched.

"How long will it take for the others to be up and walking, will they take as long as you did even though the Obelisk is working again?"

Kohakura nodded his head at the question. "Of course they will," he almost laughed. "They haven't used their bodies since the Obelisk was last shut down and that was a long time ago. It will take them a long time to retain their brain. The same will go for you when you become texhnolyzed. Now, let's get going. By the time we make it to the medical facility on the hill, everything will be fully operational again."

* * *

Kano sat on his throne as blissfully as ever. He could already feel the electricity surging through the city even if the results could not yet be seen. The only thing that was missing from Kano's plan was the train. However, he waited patiently and confidently for Zashi's return along with its whereabouts.

The blue haired soul would have continued to relax peacefully had Pino's voice not have blurted out at random, completely breaking Kano's concentration. "Hey," she stated loudly right next to Kano. Naturally, he opened his eyes and looked down to see what she needed. Pino stood next to the Shape which was positioned just next to Kano's chair. "Why doesn't this thing have a head," she asked.

A smile took form on Kano's otherwise blank face before he addressed Pino's question. "Oh, I never got around to placing one on that old model," Kano informed dismissively. He was about to look away but Pino continued speaking which prevented him from doing so.

"And what about this one," asked Pino, pointing to the two headed Shape behind Kano. "Why does it only have one head when it clearly needs two? Did you just not put one on that body either?"

Kano let out a sigh in response. "No," he said solemnly. "That body was for my dear sister. At one point, I assure you. It had a head, and I was suppose to be placed in the second slot which is currently occupied by that fake head. However, my Theoria killed her own mind. Blinded by her own ignorance, she was."

* * *

A good amount of time would pass before Re-L found herself walking along a narrow road in the city of Gabe. The Shapes littered this specific street for whatever reason. Re-L could see some corpses on the ground and guess that they must have been fighting a battle when the Shapes became immobile like this. One thing Re-L could not help but notice consistently about the corpses was the strange wounds on the skeletons. If they were not missing a limb or even a head, they had a huge, perfectly circular hole cut straight through there body in some area. They were all of the same large size as well. She could not figure out what sort of weapon could do this kind of damage to someone.

She was now convinced that there was some insanely advanced technology in this ancient city which she was not even exposed to in Romdeau. The presence of the Shapes specifically, along with the ghostly silence were the two thinks keeping her one edge here.

Re-L could not help but get the feeling that one of them would come to life and jump out at her even though there was no way for that to happen, or at least not for a few hours until they have fully reactivated.

She kept moving until she saw something rather shocking unfold around her. For no explainable reason, several lights surrounding her inside the old buildings abruptly switched on and lit up the area. Gabe was always more active than Lux and as a result, there were more lights intact before the entire underground realm was shut down.

Re-L immediately began looking around her in a panic. She kept her eyes on the Shapes who still remained motionless even though they were starting to look around with their heads and became much more talkative. Some of them even started cheering as they saw all of the little indicators in their eyes pop up after their texhnolyzed bodies reactivated.

"Damn," she thought to herself. "He already turned on the power!? How the hell did he do that so fast? How long has even been down here!?"

In mid thought, Re-L suddenly realized that it was probably a bad idea to be standing out here in the middle of the road. "Uh..." she stuttered as she took a defensive step backward. "I should probably get out of sight," she thought before promptly running off towards the shadows.


	4. Taking Shape

_Note: __Texhnolyze__ was a series that raised a lot of questions in a lot of people but for me, all of them were answered in my first viewing except for two. There have been two questions I have never found an answer to._

_One, why is the lake near Lux blood red? I never understood this. It doesn't seem to be a symbol of anything since I have researched this one detail specifically and nobody is talking about it. It's not like any other water sources in Lux are red. In the sewers, the water his clear as it should be, but why is it red in the lake._

_I have two theories to this. Firstly, this could be due to the raffia mining in Lux. Maybe their technique for acquiring the raffia causes the natural water to turn red. Either that, or maybe there is a large amount of clay underneath the lake which causes it to change color? I have no idea if that is even possible, but if anyone knows why the water is red in the lake but nowhere else then let me know. I seriously doubt it was just to 'look cool.' __Ergo Proxy__ is a series that will randomly throw in crap because it looks cool and the creators even admitted it so don't get mad at me for saying it. __Texhnolyze__ on the other hand has everything thought out. If you see something in the series, it has a purpose, so I definitely think there was a reason the water was red but I sure as hell wouldn't know it._

_The second thing that has always made me wonder and I bet everyone else feels the same way, but I can't figure out how Kano can create Shapes. What is the process behind making the Shapes? I never thought of it this way until someone mentioned it on a forum, but has anyone here ever played the game __Quake 4__? Everyone has probably heard of the original, but I'm talking about the forth one. If you have then you most certainly couldn't have forgotten the infamous Stroggification scene. If you haven't played the game then go on YouTube and look up that scene but be forewarned, it's brutal as hell... oh wait, you guys have all watched __Texhnolyze__... never mind. It shouldn't bother you at all._

_Anyway, I think it would go something along those lines. I did my best to capture how a Shape is created in this story. Of course, I have no idea how it works, all we saw was Kohakura right after his life support pod was attached. We didn't see the removal of his old body. Regardless of all that, I will now leave you alone so you can read this chapter. Enjoy._

* * *

**Taking Shape**

Kano sat on his throne as quietly as he usually was. He kept his eyes focused on a stack of papers he held in his lap. The paper he was currently looking at, depicted the anatomy of a Shape. He currently had a look of annoyance on his face as he was currently being bombarded with voices from the Shapes. His mechanical feet were kicked up on the top of the overweight Shape body which was now positioned in front of him. The arms which were outstretched around the Shape's large stomach were no longer empty. The hands seemed to be projecting a blue screen which depicted sound waves to match the incoming transmissions from active Shapes in Gabe who were practically shouting at Kano.

The blue haired leader of these mechanized beings let out a long sigh and shut his eyes just before gently laying the papers down in his lap. "Please, everyone," Kano groaned in monotone. Surprisingly, the voices over the transmissions completely silenced themselves as he spoke. "Slow down. Now, one person has the right to inform me of what they saw. That person may speak now."

After only a split second of silence, a single voice finally spoke out. "Master Kano! I saw a woman in a black suit heading through the streets."

"I saw her too," another Shape interjected aloud. "She's heading for Lux."

"Where did you see her at," asked Kano.

"I saw her in Gabe," a separate voice replied. "If I could just move, I would chase her ass down for you. I know which road she took but I can't think of the name of it."

Kano opened his eyes once more, now far more interested in what his soldiers had to say. "Can you think of any important landmarks about that road," he questioned as he rested his chin in the palm of his right hand.

The Shape paused and audibly sighed as he attempted to remember something about a road he had not traveled down in several centuries. "The doctor," the Shape suddenly shouted in recollection. "The doctor use to live down that road. It's the same road that connects to Gabe, the Class, and Lux. It's located on the left edge of the hill."

Kano seemed pleased with the small amount of information he was given. He knew exactly what road the Shape was referring to. Kano remembered ordering a large convoy of troops to use that specific route when starting his initial invasion of Lux. Kano suddenly thought of an idea on how to deal with this intruder. He turned and looked towards the metal body just under his feet and opened his mouth to say something.

"Kohakura, are you hearing all of this by any chance?"

A brief interval of static could be heard as the soldier Kano was attempting to communicate with turned on his radio. "Yes, Master Kano," Kohakura's voice spoke out. "You say there is an intruder coming down to Lux from the hill?"

"That is what the soldiers are saying," Kano corrected. "Is Vincent with you?"

"He's right here, sir," Kohakura assured but Kano could not hear Vincent at all. Kano did not exactly need to hear Vincent since he already knew it was probably safe to take Kohakura's word on it. Where else would Vincent go? "We were just on our way back to the Class to get Vincent his new body and to get me a new arm," Kohakura concluded.

"Very good," Kano assured. "I want you and Vincent to head up route 6. That is the road we believe the intruder is heading down. I want you to intercept her before she makes her way to Lux. We cannot afford to have the city killed once again when the soldiers are still powering up."

* * *

Meanwhile, Vincent and Kohakura were both standing in the middle of a bleak road. The lights in this area were still flickering on and there was only a few stationary Shapes surrounding them who were only moving their arms and joints for practice. Kohakura held the index and middle finger of his only operation arm up to his ear in order to properly hear Kano with the radio which was quite literally built into his head. Vincent only spectated his mechanical friend as he wrapped up the conversation with Kano.

Kohakura then acknowledged that he understood what Kano wanted of him and lowered his arm. Kohakura then turned to Vincent with an unfortunate smirk on his face. "Come on," Kohakura stated. "We'll have to take a different route up to the Class. It's just that way," he stated and pointed ahead of himself to the northeast. "It appears that your friend, the person you told me about earlier, has entered the city. She followed you hear. Master Kano wants us to go and deal with her."

Vincent adopted a much more angered and almost vengeful visage when hearing this. He would usually be happy to hear about Re-L, but this was not exactly the case anymore. "Then we shouldn't wait around here all day," he informed eagerly. "Let's go."

* * *

Re-L kept moving down the winding path on the edge of the hill. She suddenly came to a stop, halfway out of exhaustion and halfway out of curiosity. She noticed the railing on the left side of the road which was used to keep cars from falling off of this steep cliff face. There was a specific section of the guardrails which were completely broken off and bent away from the road. For some reason, Re-L was taken aback by this scene above all others at the moment. She turned around as she could have sworn she heard a car coming down the road behind her. When she looked back, she saw nothing and the noise stopped.

Her heart began beating rapidly as she slowly turned back and rested her eyes on the damaged railing. She immediately gasped to see a green car sitting stationary with the front half hanging off of the cliff. Re-L said nothing but she took a defensive step back as she also took notice into a blonde woman who was about as tall as she was. This woman wore a black jumpsuit and tall leather boots. Another noticeable feature about the woman was that she was rather hazy. She appeared to be slightly glowing in appearance and was just slightly blurred in contrast to the stark backgrounds around her.

Before Re-L could say anything to this strange woman, she abruptly began kicking the back of her own car with her right foot out of frustration. She continued to do so until the heel of her boot broke off and she instantly planted her foot back on the ground to keep herself balanced. Re-L spectated all of this silently. She was slightly fearful to say anything, but she eventually lifted her hand in the air to draw attention to herself.

"Hey you," Re-L said aloud, hopping that the blonde woman would hear her. The stranger did not respond, she merely continued to stare at the back of her car in anger. "Excuse me," Re-L stated in a louder tone of voice, but still nothing. Re-L was about to walk up and grab the woman by the shoulder and force her to turn around. However,, as she took her first step forward, the woman along with the wrecked car faded away, quite literally, disappearing before Re-L's very eyes.

In a defensive fashion, Re-L took a step back and shuttered. "I never believed in ghosts until I came here," she thought to herself. With that, Re-L shifted her gaze to the street she was previously heading down. She allowed her mind to wander on the topic of Vincent Law and his newly acquired allegiance with this person called Kano which she has yet to have met. She resumed her walk and looked out to the cliff which allowed her a good view of the blood red sea lying stagnant to her left.

"What did I do to you, Vincent," she asked herself subconsciously. "What have I done to drive you into this dark underworld? Are you afraid of the sun? Is that why? That isn't exactly the best of reasons since you could easily escape the sun by hiding in the Centzon until nightfall. Although, I can't say hiding in the Centzon would be an option at this point," she thought as she remembered the wreckage of the ship which she drove straight into this underground abyss.

"What did Kano say to you," asked Re-L in a melancholy whisper. "Who is Kano? Was he the one who destroyed this city? Why does everyone seem to run away from me and straight to him?" In spite of these growing questions which seemed to have no answers, Re-L grew extremely frustrated and abruptly clenched her hand into a fist. "Why isn't anyone explaining it to me!? Why am I the only one being left out!?"

Re-L abruptly silenced herself as she remembered something. She adopted a look of astonishment as a memory flashed in her head. She stopped in her tracks and allowed her brain to play back the mental video for her conscious mind to process.

* * *

About four days ago was when Re-L first noticed Vincent was beginning to act strangely. She walked down into the interior of the Centzon after steering the ship for almost three hours. Finally, Kristeva took control and was busy piloting the ship with Pino on deck watching her.

Re-L stopped just after closing the hatch leading to the outside world behind her. She then turned promptly sighed with exhaustion and removed her white coat as she would not need it in the warm Centzon. She threw the coat on her bed and looked towards the kitchen area which was positioned towards the back of the ship. Vincent was busy at the counter attempting to open up a glass jar.

Re-L tilted her head curiously at Vincent. She was surprised a Proxy was having trouble opening up a simple stuck lid on a jar. She would think he would just utilize some of his abilities, but it was clear that Vincent did not like using them. "It's almost as if he's seeking out supremacy over his Proxy half by ignoring it altogether rather than using it to his advantage," Re-L thought.

She soon had her fill of watching Vincent and decided to lend him a hand. She walked up behind him and came to a stop just a foot away from the Proxy. Re-L then reached over and grabbed the top of the jar which caused Vincent to jump as he was not expecting her to be right there behind him. He took a step backwards and dropped the jar to the floor, causing it to shatter and the red contents spilling out at his feet. Re-L let out a gasp as this scene unfolded before her.

"Vincent," she nagged. She spoke in a much more friendly tone, she was surprisingly not angry with him even though a month or so ago she would have screamed him into the ground for something such as this. As a result, when Vincent kept his eyes on the shattered jar and adopted a strangely heinous visage, Re-L was left with nothing more than confusion.

"Dammit, Re-L," he practically shouted out of unexpected frustration.

Re-L widened her eyes at Vincent. "I didn't mean to do that," she exclaimed harshly. "I was just trying to help you!"

* * *

The vision faded away with that last line. Re-L quickly snapped back to reality. She felt extreme nostalgia for 'the old days' as she might call them. The interval of time which passed when she, Vincent, and Pino were all alone together with nothing but the Centzon to get them from point A to point B. Even though it was a dangerous trip, she certainly missed those days now when she was trapped in this haunted prison.

Re-L began to feel a panic attack coming on as she suddenly got the idea in her head that she would never be able to leave this place. "The Centzon is destroyed," she announced aloud. "Vincent has gone crazy. Pino and Kristeva are not far behind him, and I am left completely to myself. Will I die here in this city?" Re-L quickly calmed herself as she just realized something in the midst of her soliloquy. "That's another thing I want to know," she told herself firmly. That usual glimmer determination returning to her eyes. "What killed the people of this city? How did they die, and why have some of them died in the cruelest of ways? I've seen a lot of bodies with perfect holes in their bodies. That is definitely brutal but I've seen worse around here. So, who did it?"

"So, you want to know what happened to the city of Lux," a male's voice said aloud from a good distance ahead of Re-L.

Her stomach dropped and she could feel her heart beating out of her chest when she heard this unexpected voice. Re-L immediately looked up from her feet which she was previously gazing at and up towards the road where she saw two figures standing afar. The first person she noticed would be Vincent Law. He held an odd weapon in his hands. It appeared to be one of those large rifles Re-L had seen lying around at the feet of the immobile Shapes in Gabe.

Standing to the left of Vincent was a Shape. Although, this Shape was different when comparing it to the other mechanized beings she has seen. He was missing an arm and did not wear a helmet. This Shape also held one of those unrecognizable rifles in his only hand. The Shape looked to Vincent who up until now had remained silent. The Shape then returned his gaze to meet Re-L. He smiled lightly and nodded his head at her.

"Hello there. My name is Bunken Kohakura. You must be Re-L Mayer. Vincent warned us that you might try to interfere. Well, I'm sorry lady, but we can't let you do that. Can we, Vincent?" The Proxy did not answer which allowed Kohakura to continue uninterrupted. "Master Kano is planning to save all of humanity from extinction. I will say though, you have made a wise choice by following Vincent down here. At least now, you will be the first woman to receive a superior body. This is a gift from Master Kano to you. He believes you deserve it."

"He believes I deserve it," Re-L repeated slowly. She then shifted her attention to Vincent and tilted her head at him as if attempting to gain his attention in return as he was currently avoiding eye contact with her. "Have you gone insane, Vincent," she questioned in a shout. "If you think I'm going to not only let you ruin your life while simultaneously resurrecting this army of machines then you must have truly lost your mind! Now, drop the gun and come on. We have to get Pino and Kristeva and then we need to find a way out of this place."

Vincent had finally had enough of Re-L and all of her shouting. He abruptly lifted the rifle up and aimed it directly at her which only seemed to make Re-L more frustrated with him as much it practically broke her heart. "Shut up," he yelled. "I've heard enough of it. If you didn't want to get involved with Master Kano then you should have ran away while you still could. I'm not leaving Lux. I'm not leaving Master Kano. I'm not abandoning my goal of obtaining one of his beautiful bodies! So, just try to stop me."

Re-L shifted her right hand inside her trench coat and grasped the handle of the shotgun which was strapped to her waste. She knew she could not kill Vincent with it but she could kill that Shape and possibly scare Vincent into submission if she can do enough damage to him. "Are we really about to kill each other over this," she asked in disbelief although her tone was stern and unyielding. "Are you and I of all people about to divide ourselves because of some psycho who wants to turn everyone into a weapon!?"

"I'm not going to kill you, Re-L," Vincent reassured. As he said this, the large barrel of the rifle extended outward until the end of it was about a foot away from the body of the gun. The bottom half of the barrel then lowered itself downward, separating from the top half by about five or so inches. Re-L's eyes were drawn to the weapon not only due to the odd way it operated, but because of a bright blue light which began formulating in the now separated barrel. A strange buzzing noise could also be heard as if something was being charged or powered up.

"I could never do that," Vincent continued. Kohakura abruptly dropped his rifle as he spoke. He then clenched his hand into a fist which caused a retractable blade attached to the back of his hand to extend outward. "I'm just going to have to force you to see reason," Vincent claimed. With that, Kohakura abruptly charged Re-L.

Her fight or flight sense switched on and took complete control over her actions. Instead of pulling out the shotgun which is what she should have done, Re-L decided to run. She turned, extending her left leg out in front of her as she attempt to switch herself around in order to run in the opposite direction. As soon as she did this, Vincent pulled the trigger on the rifle he was holding. A blue beam of energy shot out of the barrel and hit Re-L directly in the leg. She however, had no idea what happened. The only thing Re-L noticed was a sudden yet ungodly pain in the top area of her right leg. She could also no longer feel anything from her upper thigh downward.

"_What... happened_," she asked herself but no answer came. The next thing she knew, she was lying face down on the ground. She wanted to vomit in response to the pain but she could not at the moment. Re-L forced herself upward but she could not stand back on her own feet... or well, her own foot. Re-L soon came to this tragic reality when she turned her head back to see what was wrong with her right leg, only to find that she no longer had a right leg. Her limb was now lying a few feet away from her in a pool of blood.

Kohakura slowed his run to a stop just before he reached Re-L. He then casually walked up to her and retracted the blade in his wrist. Kohakura then realized that he should probably 'take care' of Re-L before the actual pain of losing one of her limbs had a chance to set in. He clenched his metal hand into a fist once more and abruptly brought it down on the back of her head, knocking her out instantly just before she was about to let out a scream.

"Is she going to live," asked Vincent after lowering the rifle which he used to blast her leg off with a single shot.

"Sure," Kohakura reassured as he grabbed the unconscious Re-L and threw her over his shoulder like a rag doll. "She'll be fine once we have her Shaped. The Class isn't too far from here. It's just a little ways away now. Come on, if we keep standing around she might die from sheer blood loss."

* * *

In the middle of a random street in Lux sat a bar. This bar had several stories to it along with an accessible roof which had also seen its fair share of activity when the city still had living people in it as opposed to ghosts and Shapes. In fact, there were a few Shapes on the roof who were currently cutting themselves loose from the roots which had ground out of the ground and into their feet.

Inside this bar which was completely ruined inside, bottles and other pieces of glass scattered on the floors. Tables had been turned in what looked like an attempt for someone to take cover. There was already evidence of a hail of gunfire inside the building along with large circular holes scattered along the walls and several skeletons could also be seen littering the ground.

However, at one booth toward the back of the bar was a young woman sitting with her head buried in her arms at a table. She wore a magenta jacket and white shirt. She had on a pair of black jeans. This woman had brown eyes and shoulder length light brown hair which contained a white and magenta striped hair band.

The name of this unfortunate soul was Yoko Ryoko. She had been sitting in this same spot and in this exact same position for the past few centuries. Even though the lights in the bar were all back on except for the one above her which must have gone bad over the years, she still did not look up. She continued to weep for what would probably end up being an eternity.

Yoko ignored all things around her, even the sight which could be easily seen from the window behind her. This scene featured a group of Shapes in the middle of the street reaching down with the blades on their hands only to cut themselves loose from the earth.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Opera House. Kano was pleased. Kano was more than just pleased with the situation. Not only were his soldiers active, but the intruder which posed the only threat to Kano's plans had been intercepted about fifteen minutes ago.

Kano could now focus on the plan for invading the surface. While his comrade Zashi was busy searching for that spare train engine, Kano was given the time he needed to rethink his plan for sending his forces to the domed city just on the horizon of the surface.

He looked up to the ceiling as he thought of just how this plan was going to work. He would have a force of exactly one thousand Shapes board the train and be sent to the surface. This would leave only just over two hundred extra soldiers to guard Lux. The train would smash straight into a docking area Kano scouted out and the Shapes would proceed to breach the city through the docking bay. It would also be a surprise attack since Kano seriously doubted anyone in that city was expecting an invasion from a fully armed force of cybernetic soldiers.

While he thought this through just one more time before it spiraled into an irreversible reality, Pino watched as the Shapes cut themselves loose from the ground. They soon began standing up and picking up their rifles. Pino stood up as well and started goosestepping in place as if mocking the soldiers while they marched out of the rows of seats and into the isles where they promptly flooded out of the Opera House and into the streets of Lux. They all knew exactly where they needed to be. Kano gave each soldier an objective and they were wasting no time in taking positions.

"_March, march, march, march_," Pino kept repeating playfully, pretending to march as they were busy doing. Kristeva watched her from a distance but remained perfectly silent. She seemed to be visibly worried, but there was no way of identifying the cause of this worry.

* * *

The Class was a society of higher and all around better humans who lived on the hill. They closed themselves off in a fortified enclave so that they may not be disturbed by the people of Lux and Gabe. It was here where Kano and Zashi were both born. It was here where the Shapes took their form. It is here where Vincent would now say goodbye to his old body just like the Shapes before him, and he would receive an all new body.

In the medical facility of the Class, several Shapes surrounded a table. On this table lied an unconscious Vincent Law. He was put to sleep just about fifteen minutes ago and the Shapes were ready to begin operating. This was one of the few Shaping stations which was still active after all these years. A bright light glimmered down on this single station as opposed to the others in the room which were engulfed in darkness.

One of the Shapes standing on the right side of the table close to Vincent's head held a medical syringe in his hand. He aimed the needle of this syringe which probably contained some sort of much needed steroid which will keep him alive during an otherwise fatal process. The Shape then forced the needle carefully into a minor vein in Vincent's neck, just barely piercing the skin. He then pumped the fluid into Vincent's blood vessel before removing it and placing it on a table behind him to get it out of the way. Now, the Shapes could go to work.

Just above Vincent, hanging on the ceiling was a huge and extremely sharp blade. It looked like a guillotine and in many ways, that is exactly what it was. A Shape on the opposite side of Vincent looked to his comrade across the table from him and gave the texhnolyzed being a nod. With that, the Shape on the other side of Vincent turned around and picked up a green life support pod before turning back and holding it out for the other Shape to see.

The first Shape nodded once again before lifting his right hand into the air. In his right hand was Re-L's FP round which Vincent forced her to hand over to him. Vincent told the Shapes that it was necessary in what they were about to do, cut off his head. If they wanted to be successful in this operation, they would have to first kill his body with the FP round. However, even with that in mind, the bullet was not loaded into a gun.

Instead, the Shape held the FP round up just next to the edge of the blade above Vincent and slowly moved it across, cutting into the glass casing which allowed one to see the blue liquid which marked a Proxy's death if it were to ever touch him. The Shape was careful to make sure he coated the side of the blade which would be facing Vincent's lower neck and body rather than the half which would be facing his head. This way, his body would die, but his head would be intact.

Eventually, the Shape coated the entire edge of the blade with the blue liquid. He then tossed the FP round over his shoulder into a trash bin nearby. He returned his hand to the blade, grabbing a hold of a handle which was attached to the side of the large mechanism. Without any warning, the Shape abruptly brought the blade down on Vincent's neck. The FP liquid reacted rather violently to the side of his neck it was given access to. Not only did it allow the blade to actually remove Vincent's entire head, but it also immediately began the process of killing off his lower body to prevent it from attempting to regenerate and reattach itself to Vincent's head even though there was already a metal barrier blocking it.

Only a small amount of blood was allowed to leave Vincent's head but the majority of the blood was prevented from leaving the head as a nearby Shape who was holding a metal disk with two circular holes in it stepped up and grabbed Vincent by the hair. In a smooth motion, the Shape forcefully yet carefully attached the disk to the bottom area of Vincent's neck. Wasting no time at all, the Shape next to the one who had just preformed this action who was holding the life support pod, stepped up as well.

There were two thick cables attached to both the top portion of the pod and the bottom of the metal disk which now had a firm grasp on Vincent's head. The Shape then started forcing the green pod to help Vincent begin breathing again. He pressed the pod in and out with his hands until Vincent finally opened his mouth to inhale and exhale along with his new body. While Vincent was busy relearning how to breath, the other two Shapes lifted the blade off of the table and pulled the useless body off of the table. One of the Shapes then grabbed a towel off of a nearby table and started wiping the blood off of the area where Vincent's head was just removed. When the table was clear, Vincent's head was placed back on the table where he continued to breath while the Shapes worked together in order to clean the area up.

And just like that, the process of replacing an entire human body was complete. Vincent was now a Shape. The only thing left to do now is to strap him into one of those metal torsos and plug in a set of all new limbs. Then, the last step would be to give him a rifle and send him on his merry way to help the invasion of the surface.

He lied their quietly. His pod inhaled and exhaled on command. It was now fully cooperating with his brain. Ironically, the most important part of his body was also the simplest for his body to learn to control. Other than his head, the pod was the only thing left on him which operated on an organic level, or at least, if one could consider it to be organic since it did not operate on electricity or power. Either way, this was Vincent's new body and there was no way to change it.


	5. Renaissance

_Note: One of the most memorable things about Texhnolyze and what captured my curiosity(I forgot to mention this in my last AN), was what happened to Lux during the time Ichise, Sakimura, and Doc were exploring the surface world. The one thing that took me aback the most was seeing those bodies impaled on pikes in front of the Organo headquarters. That made me wonder just what the hell happened but I also didn't really want to know at the same time._

_In spite of this, I now have plans to write a short story about the events which unfolded in Lux while those three were away. It will be called Gastropod and it will feature the OCs introduced in this story. In a way, Gastropod will be a prequel of sorts for Quiet Town. Anyway, don't worry about that right now. I don't plan to release that story until much further down the line. Until then, enjoy the chapter._

* * *

**Renaissance**

In a poorly lit room which was completely foreign to Re-L. She found herself lying on a table, but she was too disorientated to react or even move her head all that much. She could not feel anything below her neckline, of course, this was an extremely bad sign given the context of the situation but Re-L had only just woken up from a nap which lasted an unprecedented amount of time and was not exactly awake even though her eyes were open.

She moved her head slightly to the left which was all she managed to do in her current state although she had no way of knowing what that 'state' actually was. The first thing she spotted and slightly gasped at but was still too tired to say anything would be a blue haired young man who sat in a chair just next to her.

This stranger had vivid amber eyes and wore a brown robe. He looked to be a few years younger than Vincent. In fact, he appeared to be her age. Re-L noticed that he was not actually paying any attention to her. Instead, Re-L averted her eyes downward to see what he was looking at. Strangely enough, this blue haired man was sowing two pieces of cloth together which was the last thing she expected someone with this appearance to be doing. It was no secret who he was. The blue hair instantly gave his identity away as the one and only 'Kano.' At this point, she was expecting to see this Kano person doing something evil or menacing, but that was obviously not the case.

Of course, Re-L has never actually seen Kano, but she remembered the picture Pino drew of him. It was also very rare to see someone with blue hair which immediately narrowed down the possibilities of who this person is. The cloth Kano was repairing looked almost identical to her leather pants. Only then did Re-L remember the ungodly pain in her leg which she felt shortly before that Shape Vincent called 'Kohakura' knocked her out.

Re-L opened her mouth to say something to him, but she failed to do so. Eventually, she would not have to say anything. She quickly took notice into another person who suddenly walked into her peripherals. This person was a young boy, probably of the same age as Ran. He wore a strange outfit along with a headdress which covered his eyes. He came to a stop just in front of Kano who did not take his eyes off of the project he was working on to so much as glance at this newcomer.

"Master Kano," the boy stated, this phrase instantly proved Re-L's theory that she was actually looking at the person who Vincent, Pino, and Kristeva abandoned her to come and join up with.

"What is it, my loyal Zashi," asked Kano in a serene monotone.

"Sir, you will be pleased to hear that I have located the train. It was hidden on an old train track behind a row of factories on the western most side of Gabe. The soldiers are also continuing with the plan. We have a team clearing out the area of the tunnels which caved in. They should be finished with that in the next hour or so. We have also towed the train back to the station in Lux. Once we make the necessary repairs to the spare engine, we will drive it to the station and attach it to the train. I believe that will be the last obstacle in our way from the surface."

Kano was indeed pleased to hear this. A light smile took form on his face only for an instant before it faded back to the bored visage he wore previously. "That is very good news," Kano admitted. "Then waste no time. I want to be on the surface as soon as possible."

"Yes sir," Zashi stated and bowed his head. He then turned and looked towards Re-L who was still lying stationary on the table. "Is that the intruder our soldiers were rambling and raving about earlier today?"

Kano nodded his head. "Yes, that is her. However, she will not be troubling us anymore. Now, if you will excuse me, Zashi. I must finish this little project up and I will meet you back at the opera house."

Zashi bowed once more and took a step back. "Yes sir. I will leave you be then."

"Very well," Kano sighed. "You may go," he dismissed and with that, Zashi quiet literally disappeared before Re-L's very eyes. He flickered out of sight as if he were a hologram.

Re-L's vision suddenly faded to black. She could no longer keep her eyes open and her mind was demanding a quick return to a faraway dreamscape as it was completely exhausted due to a large amount of sedatives which were currently flowing through what was left of her system.

* * *

Kohakura's arm was now repaired at long last. He could finally interact with the world via a right hand once again. He walked through the streets of Lux with another Shape at his side. This Shape held a rifle similar to the one Kohakura held in his arms. It also wore one of those helmets with a single red glass on the mask which prevented anyone from seeing his face. The two kept walking in silence before Kohakura suddenly though of something which he forgot to mention to his comrade.

He grinned in a more relaxed fashion and closed his eyes as he listened to the sound of winding metal which was produced when the two mechanized entities moved their limbs. "Hey, Vincent," he said aloud, immediately giving away who was behind the mask. Neither of the two stopped walking and Vincent did not say a word.

"We have to go meet a few other people," Kohakura announced. "Don't worry. You'll like them. I was placed in their squad during the initial downfall of Lux. Most of us survived but two didn't." Kohakura then adopted a more depressed look in his eye regardless of the smile which was still present on his face. Vincent turned his head to examine Kohakura from behind his helmet. He focused his red eyeglass on Kohakura's face to see if he could not figure out what his new found friend was truly thinking.

"May those two of all people be given a well deserved rest," Kohakura muttered in an almost exhausted and worn out tone of voice. "For they were freed from a complex prism of encephalopathy. They are the luckiest out of us all. They were spared from the sight of mass insanity."

Vincent refocused his eyeglass, one could visibly see this if they were looking close enough to his helmet at the time of this action. "Mass insanity? Encephalopathy? What are you talking about," he questioned in curiosity. Vincent's voice had definitely changed since he was given his new body. Of course, the only reason this was the case was due to the fact that he was wearing a helmet which was filtering his voice and causing it to appear more mechanical and metallic. However, the way he spoke was slightly more aggressive. No longer was he the nervous simpleton he use to be.

Kohakura looked down to his feet in response to the inquiry. He watched as they moved and clamped onto the concrete, producing a marching sound as he went. "That's how the city fell apart," Kohakura said solemnly. "Did Master Kano not tell you this? The city fell under a blanket of chaos for no reason. The people went positively bananas and we have still yet to actively figure out how it happened. None of the less, it did happen."

"I had no idea," Vincent replied flatly. "Master Kano did tell me that the city collapsed on its own accord and in a bad way but he was not too specific. I guess that would explain some of the weird things I've seen like buildings that were burnt to the ground and other sights like that."

Kohakura abruptly stopped in his tracks. This naturally caused Vincent to stop as well. "I think there is something you might be interested in seeing," Kohakura announced unexpectedly. Vincent shrugged his metal shoulders at this, not knowing how else to respond. And just like that, the two set off, going completely out of the way of their current objective to do some 'sight seeing.'

* * *

Ran watched Re-L who was wide awake at this point. She was still lying on that same metal table and had no idea what was going on. She still could not feel her body nor move it. Kano had left long before she awoke and has yet to return. At the moment, Re-L did not even know Ran was in the room. The redhead was hiding in a dark corner, observing her ever so quietly.

Re-L forcefully attempted to move her right arm in frustration yet she failed every time. It was as if the nerves were simply ignoring her brain's commands like a waking coma patient. Re-L grew more and more frustrated with her body as time went on. She did not understand why this was so difficult. "Come on," Re-L whispered and gritted her teeth as she stared up at the ceiling which was the only thing she could do at the moment. "Move. I can't still be locked in sleep paralysis, I've been awake for God knows how long."

After awhile of watching Re-L's constant failures, Ran decided to step out of the shadows. Before she did this, she reached around to her upper back where her fox mask was hanging. She then situated it around to the front of her face. Ran promptly walked out of that dark corner with the mask on her face and headed over to Re-L.

The girl came to a stop just next to Re-L who suddenly stopped what she was doing to stare up at her visitor. "Ran," Re-L asked in surprise. "It's you. What's going on? Where am I? Why can't I move? Where did he go? Where is Kano?"

"You need to focus on learning how to move," Ran stated in her usual emotionless tone, looking down at Re-L as flatly as ever.

"What do you mean, learn how to move? I already know how to do that!"

"No, you don't," Ran dismissed. "Do you know what's happened yet?"

Re-L shot a harsh glare at Ran which she probably shouldn't be doing since Ran was literally her only friend in Lux at the moment. "How would I know where I am right now. I'm asking you that for a reason. Answer me, Ran. Where am I," she repeated.

It would appear to Ran that Re-L was on the verge of panicking, and she had a right to be fearful, given the events that have been unfolding around her lately. "You're in the city of the Class at the moment. They have replaced your old body with a metal one just like they did with your friend of Vincent. Now you have to learn how to use this new body."

Re-L widened her clear blue eyes at Ran's words. Originally, she came down here to protect Vincent from Kano's undying whispers. To save him quite literally from himself. Now, it was her who has become the victim of their agenda. Shockingly enough, Re-L almost instantly fell into a state of denial. She simply could not bring herself to believe Ran's statement.

"That's ridiculous," Re-L told herself aloud for Ran to hear. "How long have I been asleep. They couldn't have given me one of those robot bodies in that short of a time span? Now, why can't I move? Tell me the truth, Ran."

Ran did not seem convinced by Re-L's fibs to herself. In order to prove this, Ran looked away from Re-L and to her body. She then grabbed a hold of Re-L's left arm and held it up by the wrist in front of her field of vision. Re-L did not even feel Ran grab her arm which should suggest something but Re-L did not believe it until she saw it.

She narrowed her eyes at the arm which was being presented to her. She quickly gasped and her facial expressions immediately shifted from that of frustration, to one of both pure disgust and complete terror. Sure enough, Ran was right. Re-L's left arm was completely mechanical. For one thing, the pigmentation on the skin was much darker, then again, there was no skin on her arm. That being said, her arm was still darker than her usual pale complexion.

In fact, her arm was not of any sort of complexion. It was the same color as the civilian bodies which Kano used to decorate his thrown even though Re-L would have no way of knowing what those bodies actually looked like. The second thing Re-L noticed about her arm and what caused her to almost break into tears would be the way her joints looked. She looked like someone cut off her arm and replaced it with a fashion mannequin's hand. The joints were ball and socket. The segments of the fingers were attached on either side of these small metal orbs which would allow her to properly move her fingers just like someone with a normal hand would.

Her wrist appeared to be no different from her fingers. Her hand and forearm where separated by a larger ball which held the two important aspects of her arm in place while simultaneously allowing for simplistic motion and movement. It was now official, Re-L was a completely artificial girl, and unfortunately for her, that was not a description in the old sense of the phrase.

Now satisfied with the look on Re-L's face, Ran promptly dropped the arm back onto the table where it remained stationary. Re-L did not say anything at first. She shook her head, the only aspect of her being which was still human. She now understood what those weird symbols were which were currently spinning around in her vision. It was merely a symptom of this so called 'texhnolyzation.'

"I..." Re-L began hesitantly. "I am going to kill Vincent for this. I'm going to kill Vincent, that person with him, Kohakura or whatever his name is. Then, I'm going to shut this city down once and for all."

"What will you do then," asked Ran, although, she did not sound to interested in actually hearing the answer Re-L had in store.

"I think I'll just kill myself," Re-L murmured in a completely faithless fashion. "I can't escape. The Centzon is destroyed. I... I don't want to escape. Look at me. I'm another freak like those other guys and probably Vincent too by now."

It was only now that Re-L realized something. With a horrified look in her eyes, Re-L opened her mouth and bit her lip in frustration. "Please don't tell me I have one of those green things sticking out of my chest. Don't tell me that I've been reduced to nothing more than goddamn head on one of those disgusting pods that looks like some sort of mutated grub worm!"

"It isn't sticking out of your chest," Ran reassured her. "The pod is probably here, inside the part where your stomach is suppose to be," she continued and placed her hand on the mid section of Re-L's metal torso.

Regardless of this, Re-L knew she could not waste time moaning and groaning about this body which was forced upon her. She refused to see the benefits of it and there were a lot of them. However, she ignored all of this and started focusing all of her will on simply moving her right index finger. She thus began the long process of relearning how to move.

* * *

Vincent and Kohakura made their way to a quiet part of Lux. There were no Shapes present here. Everyone was off preforming their own individual jobs and tasks whilst at the same time, making sure that everything was in place before Kano gave the final order to attack the surface world or at least, attack what was left of it.

Kohakura led his comrade through a series of alleyways before they both came to a sudden stop after they entered another street which Vincent had not yet seen. On the opposite side of the street was a large white building but that was the least of Vincent's concerns. While one could not see it from behind the helmet which he refused to remove, he was visibly and utterly shocked by a sight just ahead of him in the middle of this long street. He looked up and down the road to take it all in. There in front of him, Vincent could see row after row of large metal pikes sticking out of the ground. On each of these pikes were skeletons in black suits which were impaled all they way up their bodies by the pikes. They remained on the pikes, having not moved for what Vincent thought was an eternity.

"What the fuck happened here," he finally had to break down and ask.

"Like I said," Kohakura remarked. "The people went crazy. Hell, I think even some of our guys started loosing it towards the end. It all started right here. Suddenly, the people began rallying but ironically, they weren't gearing up to fight us, the people who were literally conquering their city. Oh no. They decided to take down the Organo. The people who controlled this city before we came along. And let me tell you something, Vincent. When I say the people took care of the Organo, I mean that in the most literal way possible. This was only one of many things we've come across. I shutter to think of what we haven't seen yet."

Vincent zoomed in on one of the skeletal corpses with his red eyeglass. He scanned the first row of skeletons before he zoomed back out and grasped the rifle in his hands tightly. He then took a step out onto the street. He was just about to approach one of the skeletons when Kohakura's voice halted him in his tracks.

"Hey. What are you doing? Our friends are in the other direction. Come on. We shouldn't be looking at this for too long. Call me superstitious but I remain convinced that if a person gazes at a sight like this for too long, they too will be driven insane."

* * *

Kano entered the opera house through the large entrance area after taking his sweet time in getting here. He had no reason to rush. He might as well kill as much time since nothing interesting would be happening until tomorrow at this rate.

The blue haired leader of the Class was immediately greeted by Pino who ran up to him out of the darkness of the poorly lit opera house. "Kano," she called out and came to a stop just in front of him. Kano shifted his gaze downward at her and patted her on the head before he promptly walked straight past her and towards his throne. It was still positioned on the stage. He glanced up to the second floor in the audience section to see that it had still not been moved to the area he was hoping it would have been re-positioned in by the time he returned. Kano always stayed in the opera house but he constantly moved around in it for whatever reason. Unfortunately, he would have to wait until he decided it was time for some of the many guards watching over the opera house to move this chair and the metal bodies decorating the area around it.

Kristeva stood up from her seat in a random row nearest to the aisle Kano was now walking through. "How is Vincent," she questioned, already well aware of the fact that he previously underwent the proper surgery to achieve his new body.

"He is alive," Kano muttered and came to as top just in front of Kristeva. He turned and smiled at her in that usual serene yet slightly ominous manner he was so famous for. "I found his old body so fascinating. It took an extra step in the surgery just to keep it from reattaching to his head. I will be experimenting on it in the near future. Imagine, a creature composed of an entirely new type of cell which makes the host practically invincible. Perhaps one can use those cells to further the human species rather than hide them all in those pitiful creatures Vincent was educating me about when I first introduced myself to him." With all of that said, Kano continued walking until he reached his thrown which was eagerly awaiting him. He turned around and took a seat where he proceeded to shut his eyes in relaxation.

"You are not the first person to have this thought," Kristeva announced. "The lead scientist in Romdeau, the city we originate from was trying to achieve something similar but he failed to do so. I am not sure how or why he failed though."

Kano opened his eyes only to roll them smugly at the thought of some random scientist attempting to achieve something which was so obviously beyond them. "Rubbish," Kano sighed, this was clearly his favorite word since he used it constantly to dismiss certain subjects. "It is clear that only I have the mental capacity to take on such a task. I will solve the enigma with ease. I... the only sane thinking person left in this world will act as the lone vanguard of evolution. My beautiful bodies are already installed in the surviving population of Lux. My city. These bodies will be the only things which allow them to survive long enough for me to grant them the next stage of evolution."

* * *

Re-L was now sitting upright on the table. She looked down to her body in disgust. It took her far too long to figure out how to operate it. She had already put on her clothes which were laid out for her on a table just on the opposite side of the room. Conveniently, they left her shotgun out as well. They were probably under the assumption that she would just give up and join them after she discovered the changes they made to her, but this was not the case.

She could not bear the sight of her body without growing disdainful at the mere sight. Re-L turned away and switched her gaze towards a counter on the left side of the room. There she spotted a strange monitor which looked to be a small sized television. Next to the television was a small disk. Re-L lifted an eyebrow at the odd set up. Curious about what was on the disk, she stood up off of the table and walked over to the other side of the room, almost falling over in the process. This was only due to the fact that she was still not properly balancing herself.

Re-L quickly made her way to the counter where she picked up the disk with her metal fingers. Careful not to crush the disk in the process she aimed it directly for a tray she found at the bottom of the television set. She then pushed the tray into the disk drive and scanned the frame of the television for a power button. She spotted one just on top of the screen. She promptly pressed it and the screen switched on.

A sepia tented film suddenly flickered on screen just after the television powered up. "Huh," Re-L asked herself in confusion after a countdown timer starting at three, and currently working its way to one appeared right when the disk loaded up. She then realized the disk was actually hosting some sort of video file, although, the stereotypical countdown timer appeared to be very vintage to Re-L.

She remained silent however, ignoring the questions popping up into her brain and payed close attention to the video as she could guess that it was probably left here for a reason.

* * *

_(The Video)_

A title screen popped up immediately after the countdown timer finished. It read out the phrase:

_"The Savior of Lux: How Master Kano Enlightened Us to the Truth."_

The title screen was then quickly replaced with another screen which read:

_"He originated as a member of the Class. Master Kano was born with deformed legs. However, this did not stop him from achieving his destiny."_

This second title screen was then replaced with an actual shot of footage.

Kano sat in a wheelchair as a young boy. He had a confident smirk on his face regardless of his current physical state of being. His blue hair was also just as long as it was to this very day. This shot of footage eventually faded to black and was replaced by a new screen.

A much older Kano was now walking in a room with several doctors surrounding him. A pair of strangely shaped texhnolyzed legs could be seen under his torso, holding him up as proper legs should. This piece of footage faded away as well and was succeeded by the presence of a new title screen.

_"Master Kano became fascinated with texhnolyzation. He set out to find a way of advancing the technology and in turn, saving the human race from near extinction."_

A new title screen then popped up into view.

_"Master Kano was labeled as a demon and heretic for the longest time. Soon, the world would come to understand his brilliance and follow his divine lead."_

Kano could then be seen once more along with several Shapes who were carefully walking around. They moved as awkwardly as Re-L currently was and Kano watched them with prideful eyes. He then turned to face the camera just when the footage went black. A new series title screens then appeared in place of the short video clip.

_"His vision for the future would prove to be a difficult dream to pursue."_

_ "He won over the Class, yet the fight for evolution had only just begun."_

One last clip suddenly flashed on the screen which depicted a very brief panning over the rooftops of Lux. One final title screen then took its place.

_"Master Kano's revolution and conquest of Lux would soon be underway."_

_ "End of Part 1"_

* * *

With that the screen promptly shut off. Re-L was left speechless by the awkward and extremely short documentary. She then rubbed her eyes in annoyance and returned to her seat on the operating table. "I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for the other parts," Re-L muttered to herself.

"Other than that, I have to get out of here now," Re-L continued and forced herself back onto her feet once again. She then looked towards the closed door ahead of her. It was the only exit to the room and thankfully, it was not locked. She seemed pretty confident about leaving a place she had no idea where the exit was, but she was sure that Ran would guide her out safely.

* * *

Kohakura and Vincent soon spotted a group of three different Shapes who were sitting on a bench in front of an old apartment complex which had long fallen under its own weight. Kohakura waved at them from afar but did not succeed in gaining their attention

Kohakura abruptly turned to face Vincent. He elbowed his comrade in the side and pointed towards the three Shapes down the road. "Those are the people we'll be working with from here on out, Vincent," he informed. Kohakura then realized something as Vincent glanced towards him. He was still wearing his helmet for some strange reason.

"Hey, Vincent," Kohakura questioned with a slightly comical smile. "Why are you wearing that thing? I haven't seen you without it since you suited up. We aren't on the front lines. You don't need it at the moment and it can't be comfortable."

Vincent lifted his right arm and tapped the red eyeglass on the left side of his mask. "I like using the red thing," Vincent informed. "It helps me see out here and it gets rid of some of that crap floating around in my eyes."

"Oh," Kohakura chuckled. "You'll really get along with Masa then. He also wears his helmet twenty four hours a day. He likes that damn thing too. I never liked wearing a helmet though. It's hard to breath in those things. Anyway, you will definitely like Masa. The other two guys we'll be working with are Ito and Arai. They'll help you find your way around here."

Vincent nodded his head at Bunken's brief introduction to the only squad members still alive to this very day of whom he was assigned to work with. The two then continued walking toward the group of Shapes still sitting about fifty or so yards away from them. Vincent then became curious of something else. He was still slightly confused about what he needed to do at this point.

"Kohakura," he questioned.

"Hmm?"

"Um, what is our objective now," asked Vincent. "What do we do now that we've turned on the power? We also took care of Re-L. Now, what do we do? Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. Why hasn't Master Kano told us about our objectives?"

"Because our only objective is to sit and wait," Kohakura informed. "There is nothing left for us to do but wait until the other teams complete their objectives. When that is done, the train will be all set and we will be boarding it to help with the liberation of the surface world. Just you wait Vincent. In dear time, we'll be up there helping Kano's cause in anyway we can. On the surface, we will be able to make a difference."


	6. Faces

_Note: Okay, __some of you may remember me leaving a note asking about the red water in Lux. I think I have a theory about it and I express it in a one-shot I released recently for __Texhnolyze__ called __Red Tide__ so go check that out if you want. It isn't too terribly long either. Also, because this story is coming to an end, I've decided not to include those other Shapes but when Gastropod comes out, they will definitely be included._

_Enjoy the chapter._

* * *

**Faces**

Re-L entered a large room, still struggling to work her new body. That, and she spent a considerable amount of time weeping inside a bathroom over the idea that she was now a Shape. Re-L was normally not the person to be seen crying, but she had her breaking point. One could see this due to how her makeup was now visibly melted over her cheeks where it had already dried up in that position to forever illustrate her sorrows to the world.

She walked down the bleak hall, on edge and constantly on the look out for patrolling Shapes. She saw a few earlier, but she has not seen anything for a long while. After the longest interval of roaming aimlessly in the former city of the Class, Re-L came to a stop in front of an open doorway.

The woman in black peered inside this room curiously and quickly spotted a man sitting in a large room. This man had shaggy brown hair but Re-L could make out no details about his face. She carefully approached this person with her hand at her waste hovering just over the handle of her shotgun.

"Hey you," she muttered to gain the man's attention. She noticed he was sitting just on the edge of what appeared to be a massive drained in ground pool. There were several skeletons at the bottom of this pool and two pistols on the ground on either side of the man.

"What's up," he questioned casually and did not so much as turn back to see who was speaking to him.

"Who are you," Re-L asked bluntly.

The man was still not too keen on the idea of turning around. He looked towards the wall on the other side of the room as he addressed her questions. "My name's Shinji. And who are you?"

"My name's Re-L Mayer," the woman informed flatly. "Can you tell me how to get out of this place? I also need to find a man named Kano."

Shinji snickered quietly at her statement. Re-L on the other hand, did not find this so funny. "I've been looking for Kano in this worn out place for the longest time. I did killed off all of these other morons in the Class so I guess I can't complain. Anyway, if you want out of this shit hole then go out of this room the way you came and take a left. Follow that hall straight out. If it's Kano you want, then good luck finding him."

"Thank you," Re-L said with a gracious nod of her head. She felt so curious about this individual. She was more concerned with his comment of 'killing off the other members of the Class' but she knew she had no time to sit around and ask these random questions to every apparition she was faced with. Instead, she turned away and left the room, leaving Shinji to continue his hopeless searching through the Class' massive enclave.

* * *

Kano sat in his throne. He and his decorative Shape bodies were moved up to a balcony facing the empty stage. The only thing on this stage was a spotlight cast down on a miniature replica of the Obelisk. He relaxed himself with his metallic feet kicked up on the headless Shape body.

His calm smile indicated that nothing in the world was wrong at this very moment in time. His peaceful demeanor seemed to be almost unwelcome in the city of Lux. Of course, that was only when the city was still alive. Kano opened his eyes and looked up to the ceiling above. He listened to the only noise which could be heard in the room at this point in time. The sound of Pino attempting to gain his attention from the ground level of the opera house below.

She jumped around on the ground while Kristeva sat on the edge of the stage keeping a close eye on her as she usually did. "Kano," Pino called out cheerfully. "Is Vincent on his way here yet? I haven't seen his new body! Does he have it yet?"

"Patience child," Kano sighed casually but made sure Pino could hear him clearly. "Vincent is very busy right now, but I asked Zashi to guide him back here. They should come around here any moment now. Kristeva," he muttered and glanced down to see the other AutoReiv stand up at the sound of her name being called upon. "Please keep her occupied until Vincent arrives," Kano requested.

"Yes sir," Kristeva replied calmly. She then looked down to the area of the theater where Pino was standing. "Come over here, Pino. Leave Master Kano to himself for a little while." Pino adopted a pouting expression but did as told and retreated off to the stage where Kristeva was waiting on her.

This gave Kano more time to relax. He looked over to the two headed Shape body which was now positioned to where it was standing up with its hands planted on the railing as it looked down into the auditorium. He had recently attached a new fake head back into the empty slot where he claimed his 'Dear Sister' was held.

Kano narrowed his eyes at the lifeless Shape. "What might you be looking at, dearest sister," Kano asked flatly. He waited for an answer but obviously, he received nothing. "Why are you always so cold? Could you not just answer a single question, Theoria?"

After no response came his way, Kano stood up with a disappointed frown. He then approached Theoria from behind and wrapped his arms around her two necks. "Mother would not be pleased with your behavior, now would she? You've never been one for words but I can foresee an envy in your metallic heart. Are you irritated with my decision to attach the other Theoria to your body?"

He suddenly and very calmly, grabbed a hold of the cloth around Theoria's heads and removed it before positioning his own head in between them. He then shut his eyes serenely. "Or perhaps your angry with my decision to mate with Lux as opposed to you. If that is the case, then may I remind you that Lux does not really exist, now does it?" Kano moved his hand down the artificial cheek of Theoria's left head as he continue with his strange rambling. "No, of course not. Lux was the stage inside my head which only existed to amuse me for a short time, and oh, how it was amusing to behold."

Kano rolled his eyes at his apparent sister and released her. He then moved back to his seat and sat down. Just as he did this, Zashi suddenly flickered into sight just next to him. Kano turned to see what his comrade needed.

"Sir," Zashi began. "I have bad news for you."

Naturally, Kano was not pleased to hear this. "What on earth could be wrong now," asked Kano with a mute visage, but Zashi could easily see the glimmer annoyance in his amber eyes.

"Well... the teams you ordered to go down and clear out the tunnel in order to remove the damaged train engine out of the way has reported in," Zashi informed. Kano grew more and more annoyed but allowed Zashi to continue.

Zashi held out a paper for Kano to look at in order to verify what he was saying. "They claim the train engine has crashed sideways and is lodged into one of the walls while also being buried in the rubble. It will take about a month to clear out all of that wreckage. Not only that but the spare train engine is no longer working. We were able to start it up but it just recently broke down and we have no way of repairing it since nobody is familiar with train repairs."

Kano was most certainly not happy about hearing that. "You just said it was up and running. I was expecting my forces to flooding that domed city on the horizon by noon tomorrow. What happened to our plan, Zashi," he questioned quietly.

"My apologies, sir," Zashi claimed with a bow, "but there was no way to avoid these problems."

"Very well," Kano sighed, knowing there was no way around this situation. "Leave me be, and ensure that work on the tunnels continues.

"Yes sir," Zashi replied and faded away from the realm of visibility.

* * *

Vincent and Kohakura walked down an empty street alone. They had just met with their other squad mates but they had received different orders and were required to separate from the others. Kohakura was now in the process on informing Vincent on what Kano himself had requested they do for him.

Kohakura rambled on. Vincent payed attention but was more interested in listening to the sound of his joints moving artificially as he walked down this dark alley.

"Master Kano has given us the task of guarding the Obelisk. Because your friend has refused to report to any trusted comrade of the Class, she has been deemed a threat to the movement, and to our goals of liberating the world. So, be on the look out for her," Kohakura explained. "Also keep an eye out for..." He would have continued speaking had he not have heard a voice over the com link installed inside his ear. He suddenly came to a stop, Vincent did as well out of instinct. Kohakura turned to him casually, "Hold on a minute, Vince."

He then turned his attention away from Vincent as he focused on the com link. "Hello," he questioned aloud. "This is Bunken Kohakura speaking."

A wave of static could be heard in his ear before Kano's voice abruptly broke this metaphorical sea of white noise. "Kohakura... Where are you? Is Vincent with you?"

"Uh... yes sir," Kohakura confirmed with a pointless nod of his head. "Vincent is right here with me. We were just on our way to the Obelisk." He then gave him the exact street they were on and waited for a response.

Kohakura appeared to be visibly taken aback by what was being said over the radio. "Yes sir, we're on our way." Kohakura then lowered his hand away from his ear and looked over to Vincent. "That was Master Kano. He doesn't sound to happy so let's hurry up and see what he wants."

"Alright," Vincent stated, his voice still being affected by the helmet he was wearing. He then glanced back over his shoulder as he thought of something. "What about the Obelisk?"

"Don't worry about it. We'll finish speaking with Master Kano and return to our duty."

* * *

Re-L cautiously walked through an old apartment building towards the edge of Gabe. It took her no time at all to escape the former enclave where the Class use to reside and make her way through the nearly desolate Gabe. Most of the troops were being moved towards the train tracks and tunnels. Re-L was already well aware of most Shape positions in the area since her body also had a com link installed for whatever reason. It was actually Kano who insisted on it but he did not give a clear justification for it.

None of the less, Re-L was putting it to use by listening in on what everyone was doing. The only person she did not know where to find other than Kano himself would be Vincent who was pretty quiet over the radio.

She came to a sudden stop and knelt down when she saw a flash of red just down the hallway. The only reason she was in this building to begin with would be the fact that she saw a light in one of the rooms and wondered if it was Ran signaling to her. She reached for her shotgun and removed it from her waist as she waited to see the red light again.

Re-L sighed with relief, chalking it up to her imagination and stood up. She took a few steps forward and nearly jumped out of her metal body when she noticed a bright blue light abruptly fly down the hall and zip right towards her. It would have blasted a hole in her body had she not have thrown herself against the right hand wall at the last minute. This bolt of energy was followed by the phrase, "There she is!"

Re-L instantly twirled around and ran the opposite direction, knowing she was already the victim of an ambush. "How did they know I was here," she asked herself but wasted no time pondering the situation. She turned the corner and ran down the same hall she came from. She would have headed straight for the open elevator shaft which had the same ladder she used to get up to this floor had a Shape not have busted out of a closed door in a nearby apartment and charged her position.

On impulse, Re-L dodged the oncoming Shape and its extended wrist blade. She spotted another in that same open doorway preparing to shoot her with one of those devastating energy rifles. In a panic, she ran past the second Shape and took a left into an open exit which led to the building's stairwell.

Re-L suddenly stopped her fleeing and froze in place as her eyes rested on yet another Shape who was standing on the level below her with his rifle aimed directly at her head. "Master Kano wishes to see you," the Shape informed sternly. "Surrender your weapons and come with us."

In one quick motion Re-L fired one shell at the Shape, causing him to panic and fire off a blast from his rifle which missed her solely due to Re-L vaulting over the guardrails and landing on the fight of steps directly below her. From there, she frantically ran down the stairwell and kicked open the red exit door which led her to the broken down lobby of this apartment complex.

The lobby was not exactly a welcoming place either. She quickly took notice into two Shapes taking cover behind the front desk at the far end of the room. Re-L turned and looked at the open entrance area which was guarded by a single Shape who was also aiming a rifle at her. Re-L reacted quickly by charging the Shape at the entrance to the apartment building and aimed her shotgun at his head, knowing that would be one of the only two effective places to shoot a Shape, the other being the life support pod.

The three Shapes opened fire, one bolt hit Re-L in the arm but only burnt off a small section of the surface of her metal limb. She could not even feel it nor did she notice it at all. Re-L fired her shotgun before the Shape in front of her had a chance to fire his own weapon which would have surely killed her. She then fired the second shell in her chamber at the Shape which caused its head to explode despite the presence of a helmet which could provide no protection from a shotgun at such a close range.

The Shape promptly fell backwards. Its body shut down just in time for Re-L to make her way past it and out the door. She turned to the right when she reached the empty street and ran off to a nearby alley where she would hopefully lose the Shapes still pursuing her. Re-L ran down this alley but came to an abrupt halt as she noticed a figure standing in the shadows directly in front of her.

While she was halfway expecting to see Ran and nobody else, it was not Ran who had come to visit her. It was a young man only a few inches taller than she was. He wore a light blue shirt and white pants. The stranger and black hair grayish blue eyes. Re-L looked down and instantly noticed the metal arm on his right side.

Re-L looked back up to properly greet the man. She did not speak too loudly and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure the Shapes where not following her. When she was sure they were nowhere in sight, Re-L spoke out. "Who are you?" Re-L waited but no response came her way. She repeated herself with hopes of evoking a response out of him. "My name is Re-L. Re-L Mayer. Who are you?"

The still man gave no answer. Instead, with an eternally flat expression, the ghost turned away and walked off into the shadows. Re-L glanced over her shoulder once again to make sure the coast was clear before she pursued this man any further. It appeared to be completely clear so she quickly charged off after the silent stranger.

"Hey wait," she called out as quietly as possible, still worried the Shapes would hear her even though they probably chased after her but went in the wrong direction since there were multiple exists from the street near the front of the apartment complex's entrance.

* * *

It took her around an hour of walking, but she managed to follow the man all the way back to a large and what looked to be a once luxurious home which was isolated from the Class, Lux, and even Gabe. It was positioned near the same road Vincent took to get from Gabe to Lux. He came across this same house but did not explore it.

This home was in the middle of nowhere and Re-L was surprised she even managed to find it, not considering of course that she was led here by someone else. She had yet to have heard a word come from the person she was following no matter how much she nagged and nagged. At this point, Re-L just kept to herself on the journey to this specific place.

"Is this your house," Re-L finally asked as she rushed towards the closed off entrance of the home where the man was now standing. He turned to her with an unreadable expression. It looked as if he was about to say something before he lost the will to do so. Instead, he turned away once again and opened the door.

She quickly gave up, knowing that pressing any further for an answer would just be a waste of her breath and energy. The man disappeared down a dark hallway. Re-L did not want to lose sight of him so she hurried after him.

It took no time at all for Re-L to catch up to the unnamed man she had been stalking for over an hour now. He came to a stop at a random point in the hall, Re-L did as well and waited for him to make his next move. He looked over his shoulder for only a second as if to make sure Re-L was still behind him. When he confirmed that she was, the young man turned to the left and opened a nearby door. He did this by pressing a button on the wall which caused the door to slide open rather than having to manually open it.

The man then stepped inside the room and Re-L followed. She came to a stop just inside the doorway and looked around. Re-L was astonished to see a woman in a familiar black jumpsuit lying on a metal table at the far end of this room which looked to be a rather high end laboratory. Re-L was surprised to see equipment which looked like it belonged in Daedalus' laboratory. She had no idea how these people underground could have access to such items like the massive computer terminal which was directly adjacent to the door.

"Doc," the stranger muttered in monotone. Re-L could not believe that he actually heard this person speaking. From what she could gather, she got the feeling that he was not capable of communicating.

The blonde woman on the table forced herself up into a standing position. She shifted her blue eyes towards the man who gained her attention. She remained completely unfazed up until the point when she noticed Re-L standing in the background. "Ichise," she stated in a strange accent which Re-L could not identify. "Who is that girl?"

"She followed me here," Ichise replied without so much as turning to face her when he spoke of her presence. "She says her name is Re-L Mayer. She doesn't look like a ghost so I thought you could help her out."

Re-L lifted an eyebrow at Ichise's curious behavior before she switched her attention to the woman he called 'Doc.'

The woman on the medical table did not seem pleased with her arrival. "Well, what is it? What do you want?"

"Um... hello," she stuttered carefully. "I'm actually looking for someone. Have you seen a man in a red suit walking around this place? He has black hair and extremely vivid green eyes. I swear I see them glowing sometimes, but anyway. Have you seen anyone like that?"

"No," Doc disclaimed. "Now, if that's all you need then would you please leave? There's nothing here which is worth your interest other than Ichise but he is my property! If you're here to collect him, then you can tell that blue haired freak that he will have nothing to do with Ichise."

Re-L had no idea where these assumptions were coming from. She took a step back and glanced toward Ichise who was not even paying attention to the two women at this point as he was too busy looking through an open drawer at a nearby table.

"What the hell are you talking about," Re-L asked firmly. "Did I not just give you my reason for being here in this place? If I could leave these damn catacombs altogether then I would but I have no way of doing so!"

"I'm not stupid," Doc informed. "I know you're with Kano. The only reason you're here is to steal Ichise, but I won't have it. You people already threw me aside for that miserable excuse of a scientist! Just leave me alone."

"You know Kano," Re-L asked frantically. She completely ignored Doc's paranoid argument when she realized this. "Tell me where he is! I need to kill him. He turned me into one of those metal drones. Please tell me where he is, I have to kill him."

Doc lowered her guard when she heard this. Surely enough, she looked down to Re-L's hand only to see it was indeed a texhnolyzed limb. She sighed and stood up off of the table. "Come to the roof and I'll show you. Ichise, I'll be right back," she stated aloud but this stirred no reaction from the silent man at the other end of the room.

* * *

The two made their way to the roof of Doc's home. Re-L found it strange that she could not see anything from this vantage point. Even though power had been restored, the lights above were not yet powered on and it was too dark to see anything on the horizon. Re-L walked towards the edge the roof only to feel Doc's attempt to push her off. Apparently, Doc still did not believe Re-L's claims.

Re-L's immediate response to this was to whip around, simultaneous hitting the woman in the face with the back of her metal hand. Doc let out a pained gasp as she landed on the ground in a sitting position. She scooted away from Re-L as soon as she had the chance.

Re-L would normally be extremely angry about something like this, just as any normal person would, but she was more curious with the fact that she was actually able to physically interact with this supposed apparition. "Hey," she said aloud but Doc was too afraid to respond. "How did I hit you just now? You're a ghost. I can tell by that haze around your body. So, how could I even touch you and how did you just touch me?"

Doc did not say anything. She was only able to remain in that same sitting position, shaking in fear as if she were waiting for Re-L to hit her again.

"I don't understand," Re-L thought to herself. "If these ghosts can interact with the physical environment, then why did Kano need Vincent's help in reviving his army of metal freaks? Why couldn't he have just done it himself?"

* * *

Kohakura and Vincent walked inside the abandoned opera house where Kano could always be found. While they did not see him right off the bat, they were instantly greeted by Pino who ran up to Vincent as soon as he entered the main room.

"Vince," she exclaimed as she came to a stop directly in front of him. She closely examined his new body. "Vince is that you," she asked curiously, already aware that Vincent was on his way but due to his helmet, she could not tell if it was him or not.

Vincent knelt down and placed his rifle on the ground. The mask over his face suddenly retracted into his helmet to verify Pino's question. He smiled at the little AutoReiv and patted her on the head. "Hi Pino. I'm glad you made it here safely." Vincent then remembered that there was someone standing behind him. "Oh, and this is Kohakura," he announced as he pointed to the Shape in the background. "So, where is Master Kano? We need to speak with him."

"He's right above you," Kristeva's voice sounded off from a good distance behind Pino. Vincent and Kohakura averted their eyes toward her. They then proceeded to walk out into the middle of the auditorium where they would be granted a view of the level above the bottom floor they were currently standing on. Surely enough, they saw Kano sitting next to Theoria in his throne above everyone else in the building.

"Master Kano," Kohakura called out. "Is there something wrong? You sounded irritable over the radio."

Kano stood up from his seat and walked over to the edge of the balcony. He looked down at his subjects with an obvious lack of pity or remorse. "Yes, I am angry," he stated quietly. "I was informed by Zashi that our departure to the surface would have to be delayed for an unprecedented amount of time. I will not tolerate another unnecessary moment in this filthy place. I must see the surface, and I will see it right now. Vincent Law, Bunken Kohakura, I've called you both here to carry out an order."

"What do you need, Master Kano," Vincent asked, already willing to do whatever it was that Kano desired.

"I think the time it must take to restore the tunnels to the surface and fixing the spare train engine will take less time than what Zashi has claimed," Kano declared. "The only thing we are missing is the will to carry these projects out as quickly as possible. What I need you to do is simply encourage the others to work as hard as you two have. If only the other members of our little family had the same attitude as you two have, I know we would already be marching forth into the vast world above us."

Kohakura simply had to step in at this point. "What do you need us to do, sir?"

"I need you to burn this city to the ground," Kano announced in an emotionless, monotone voice. "If we are to destroy this city, they will be encouraged to work harder or risk the fire melting their heads into a gooey liquid. Plus, we will have no use for the city of Lux when we are on the surface so what is the use of keeping it around?"

Before Kohakura could even utter a word of debate, Vincent interrupted him. "Anything you wish, Master Kano," he proclaimed. "We'll have this city on fire in a matter of hours, sir."

"Vincent," Kohakura muttered under his breath.

The former Proxy turned to face Kohakura in response. "Come on. You heard him. We have to destroy the city."

"Yes you do," Kano agreed. "But don't leave just yet. I have a plan and you need to follow it down to the last letter."

While Kano, Vincent, and Kohakura were plotting out a way of destroying this mute underworld, Ran walked down a street near the opera house all by her lonesome self. She listened to the sound of nothing which was the only thing she ever could hear in this massive tomb of a city. The air was just as stuffy as it always was in this immense underground purgatory.

* * *

Ran kept moving on and on without any clear goal in mind. She dragged a cart of long decayed flowers with her. She remained perfectly silent, having no reason to say much of anything, she just kept walking, enjoying the uncomfortable silence that follows. The very sound of her boots hitting the pavement with each step did not even seem to successfully break this insanely oppressive silence which plagued all three underground cities.

The Seer of Gabe could see everything unfolding before her very eyes, and yet she still kept a strange smile on her face which almost indicated that she felt a since of relief, regardless of how brutal her premonition might be.

Her will to finally be freed from this eternal roaming in the same old streets appeared to be coming to an end, especially if Kano's plan ended up being a success. These miserable streets were not always silent, especially one a soul is to find oneself alone. The mania which unfolded on the final day of Lux's hundred year lifespan had come to an end still lingered like an old spirit.

Ran marched on into the impending destruction which now loomed over Lux. Fully aware of what was to come, she could do nothing more than smile. She smiled at the fact that after all these centuries, Lux and the undying inhabitants would finally be put out of their misery.


	7. Erosion

**Erosion**

Re-L finally entered the city of Lux. She counted herself lucky that there were almost no Shapes in sight. Most of them were probably all down in the tunnels working on finding a way to remove the blockage in the tunnel leading to the surface. Even though she had not seen a single Shape since she was ambushed in Gabe, Re-L was more alert than ever. She figured they must be tracking her via her newly installed body somehow.

The Shape dressed in black kept moving until she suddenly heard a faint sound coming from the building directly in front of her. There was nothing special about this building. It was just as lifeless as the rest of them but that still did not change the fact that Re-L was hearing a ghostly cry coming from afar. Her curiosity immediately got the better of her as it always did. She silently headed off towards the building, hoping to find the source of this apparent crying. Re-L made her way across the street as quietly as possible, all the while checking her corners for Shapes who might be waiting on her to stumble into another ambush.

She soon came to the closed off entrance of what appeared to be a bar. Re-L pushed one of the old wooden doors open and promptly walked inside. This was definitely the location where the cry noise was being produced. It was even louder in this room. She scanned the lifeless indoor space for whoever or whatever was producing this noise.

Eventually, Re-L's eyes settled upon a woman sitting at one of the tables on the far left side of the ancient bar. Re-L lifted a curiously eyebrow before walking over to the table this strange woman was sitting at. She looked to be a few years older than Re-L but still around her age.

"Hey," she said flatly but the weeping woman did not answer her. "What are you doing here? What's wrong with you," Re-L questioned further. "Are you a ghost like all the others?"

At long last, the woman finally looked up to see what this newcomer wanted with her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Re-L Mayer," she informed with a lack of emotion. "And yours?"

"Yoko," the woman replied as she wiped a few tears away from her eyes.

"I see," Re-L informed. "What's the matter with you? How long have you been crying in this dark room for? Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

Yoko shook her head and turned to gaze out the window on the other side of the table. "I don't know how long I've been waiting for. When everyone went crazy, I hid in here. Everyone started killing each other and the ghosts all stopped moving."

Re-L found that last bit to be worth her inquiries. "Ghosts? Do you mean, people like you or are you referring to something else?"

"Huh," Yoko asked in confusion. "I'm talking about the big metal guys who are running around the town. They started moving again. I know I saw some of them walking down the street a few hours ago."

While Re-L found all of this to be slightly interesting, she had to press on. Her desire to learn more about Lux when was still alive and well would have to wait to be satisfied or at least until she immobilized the Shapes. "Can you tell me how to stop them? Those metal soldiers? Also, where is Kano? Is he in the city too or is he somewhere on the hill?"

Yoko shook her head with confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about. Those texhnolyzed guys stopped walking around on their own. They have no weakness. Maybe if you were to destroy the Obelisk or cut off its power. That's how all texhnolyzed limbs receive power. I saw a couple of guys shooting one but it wouldn't die. Then it killed them. I know Shinji was able to kill Hal, but he just got lucky. And I've never met anyone named Kano. Sorry."

"Whatever," Re-L sighed. "What's the fastest way to the Obelisk from here," she questioned but Yoko shrugged her shoulders in response, having no idea since she never had any reason to visit the Obelisk.

Knowing that there was nothing left in this place which would provide any useful information, Re-L promptly walked away, leaving the same way she came.

* * *

Vincent and Kohakura could be seen in an alleyway near a random street in Lux. Kohakura was busy listening to tactical chatter going on all over Kano's radio frequency involving the position of Re-L Mayer. Vincent was standing on the other side of the alley, leaning against a wall as he stared off towards the main road which was just as empty as every other street in this underworld.

They had been sitting there for about fifteen minutes. Vincent was growing more and more impatient with the situation. He kept glancing back to Kohakura, hoping he would catch his comrade when he was finally finished listening to the radio, but that moment has yet to come. Vincent turned once more to see what Kohakura was up to now. As expected, he was still listening to what other Shapes were saying.

He eventually let out a long sigh, becoming extremely bored with the situation, he finally spoke out for himself. "Kohakura, what's going on? Kano already gave us our orders. We're suppose to be setting this place on fire, not sitting around. What are you trying to do? Is he giving us new orders or something?"

Kohakura looked up to address these questions. "No, Vincent. I was actually listening to some of the reports on your friend's position. She's pretty fast, apparently. She's already in the city. She's been deemed a threat by Master Kano, and has already escaped one of our ambushes. The reason I'm listening is because I think she's somewhere in the area. In fact, I almost guarantee if we keep heading east for a few blocks we would run into her."

"What's she trying to do," asked Vincent.

Kohakura glanced to the right before answering the question. "I think she's on her way to the Obelisk. In which case, we really need to stop her. She can't be too far off from our current position. If we can just catch up to her in time, we can put an end to Kano's only threat. From there we can resume our original goal of reaching the fuel depot near the lake and set the whole place on fire. I just hope they solve the train issue out before we get to the fuel depot. I don't like Kano's plan."

"Well, we have to get it done," Vincent reminded. "Let's find Re-L first. She ought to be the priority since if we lose power, I don't think we'll be able to make it to the fuel depot anytime soon," he commented.

For a very specific reason, Vincent was not too worried about Re-L shutting off the power, or at least, that was what Kohakura assumed just by listening to Vincent's detached tone of voice. He was currently wearing an extra battery around his body. The same one Kohakura had to wear before they were able to restore power to the Obelisk. While he personally was not worried about the Obelisk, Vincent was eager to see exactly why Re-L still insisted on fighting Kano.

Kohakura sighed but stood up, knowing Vincent was definitely correct on how they should deal with this situation. "You're right. We can't do much if the power is cut off again. Follow me. She should be somewhere in this direction," Kohakura informed as he set off towards the main road. Vincent watched him leave for only a short moment of silence before following his comrade into the wasted and withering city.

* * *

Zashi stood a few yards behind Kano's throne. The blue haired man in question was, as always, relaxing in his chair while his little 'decorations' were positioned around him as they usually were. Pino and Kristeva could be seen sitting in the audience section of the auditorium. Pino was running around in her usual fashion. Kristeva only sat and watched, keeping a close eye on her at all times. They finally took Kano's advice and decided to switch to the Obelisk as a primary source of power rather than having to deal with batteries which needed to be charged at all times.

Kano stared at the lifeless Shape body which he always called Theoria. He was tempted to say something but he refrained from doing such up until now. Kano became more and more annoyed with Theoria's cold and detached silence. His dear sister was doing just about everything her power to keep from speaking to Kano for whatever reason there may be for doing such a thing.

"Why are you so rude," Kano questioned at long last, breaking the brutal silence in the opera house. "What could possibly be wrong with you today? You know I must burn this place the ground. I don't understand why you're so bent up about it. This place ugly as it is. I was going to destroy it as soon as we no longer required it. You do know that, don't you? What use is this city when we have the entire surface to ourselves? If anything, this city acts as a prison constructed by my very own cognition. I cannot understand what makes you so attached to this hole in the ground."

The quirky individual on the throne then glanced to the left. He looked to the ground for a split second before addressing Zashi, who was still standing behind him. "What's wrong now," he asked quietly. "Please don't tell me that there will be some new delay in reaching the surface. I'm already upset about our current setbacks."

"No sir," Zashi informed. He then walked around to the front of the throne to properly confront Kano about a new issue. "There is indeed a problem, sir, but it isn't anything I would personally warrant as a major issue."

"Well, I suppose that's a slight relief to hear," Kano muttered and looked away, averting his golden eyes towards the two mechanical beings on the floor below. "It probably could be worse for us, could it not?"

"That would be true, sir," Zashi insisted. "Very true."

* * *

Kohakura spotted Re-L from the shadows. He carefully walked up behind her, ensuring that no noise would be made which might cause her to look over in his direction. His rifle was ready to fire but he was surprisingly not aiming it at her. Meanwhile, Vincent was no where in sight. He was probably off in the background, waiting to ambush Re-L if necessary.

After a few minutes of following her, Kohakura finally thought it best to reveal himself. "Hey you," he called out after coming to a stop just behind her. He gripped both handles on his rifle and casually aimed the barrel in her direction.

Re-L visibly jumped, not expecting to hear a voice coming from behind. She quickly turned around, and looked in his direction. She took a few steps back and reached to her waist just inside her coat and grabbed hold of the handle to her shotgun. She did not draw her weapon right away. Re-L heard the buzzing sound from Kohakura's rifle and knew all too well that a hole would be blasted into her body if she were to make any sudden movements.

"Calm down, now," Kohakura warned with a slightly friendly smile. Re-L watched as the barrel from his rifle lit up and the buzzing became louder but luckily, he did not shoot her right off the bat. "You remember me? Vincent and I helped give you that new body of yours. Without it, you would have probably bled to death. Now, where do you think you're going. I just hope that answer has nothing to do with the Obelisk."

Re-L said nothing. Instead, she responded by promptly throwing herself out of the way. She was able to pull her shotgun from its holster as she did this. Out of instinct, Kohakura fired a round in Re-L's previous direction, but he unfortunately missed. However, Re-L noticed not one but two bolts of energy flying at her. The other one also missed her, hitting the ground in the vicinity she was just previously standing in.

She scanned the background for the location of the second Shape, but she could not find anyone or anything else of interest other than Kohakura. Bunken turned around rapidly and fired off another bolt of energy at her. Re-L was lucky enough to duck out of the way. While the bolts were not exactly slow moving, the time it took to fire one gave Re-L enough warning to get herself out of the way in time before he fired it.

Re-L lunged to the left and attempted to run off in the direction she was headed only to notice two separate glowing red eyeglasses in the shadows of a building directly in front of her. She then spotted two blue lights. Re-L allowed herself to fall to the ground right before two more bolts flew past her in the air above. Re-L was quick to stand up again, but she did not get too far. She came to a stop and dropped her weapon when three new Shapes marched out from a nearby alleyway behind Kohakura. There was no way she could keep fighting at this point. It was as Re-L expected. If she was to spotted in an area and not leave quickly, the situation would only end with more and more Shapes swarming the area over a short span of time.

"There," Kohakura sighed with relief. He was hoping Re-L would at least surrender before he had to blast her head off of her artificial shoulders. "Was it that hard to just stop fighting? Are you done, now? Because if you are, Master Kano would like to see you."

"Kano," Re-L asked. "Where might he be?"

"In the opera house just south from here, although, it's a good ways off. It's not that hard to miss," Kohakura explained casually. As he elaborated on all of this, he looked down to his rifle and disarmed it. The barrel closed in on itself and he promptly lowered the weapon.

Re-L smiled at Kohakura's words. She assumed they would just trust her to walk down there on her own, without any supervision. "I'll just go then," she muttered cockily and was about to start off for a nearby alleyway when one of the Shapes in the background stepped in her way just before she was able to leave.

"Hold on, a minute," Kohakura ordered with a snicker. "You think we're going to let you go on your own? Nobody down here is that stupid." Kohakura then looked towards the Shape standing next to Re-L and pointed at him. "You, walk her over to the opera house. I'd do it myself but Vincent and I are on a separate mission for Master Kano and we need to complete this objective as quickly as possible. We already had to delay its completion by going out of our way to deal with her," he stated and gestured towards Re-L.

"Okay, I can do that," the Shape said with a nod of his head. He shifted his attention to the prisoner and stepped aside. "Well, hurry up then. Get moving. I'll be right behind you." Re-L rolled her eyes and walked away, leaving her shotgun on the ground, knowing it would be a bad idea to try and reach it when she had about six and possibly seven weapons on her in case one of these masked Shapes did not turn out to be Vincent.

The two soon made their way out of Kohakura's sight. As soon as they were gone, Vincent finally came out of his hiding spot which turned out to be right behind a broken wall which was positioned behind his comrade.

Kohakura turned around to properly confront Vincent. He glanced around before addressing Vincent to make sure the other Shapes were gone as well. They waved goodbye and were soon off on their way again. This left Vincent and Kohakura alone in this long abandoned square.

"Why did she do that," Vincent questioned aloud. Kohakura was slightly surprised by the random question.

"What do you mean?"

Vincent pointed in the direction Re-L and that other Shape went. "Why did she just surrender? That's unlike her. I'm surprised she didn't try fleeing again. She's the type who usually doesn't give in so easily." Vincent stared down that empty street with extreme cynicism. He knew Re-L was not one to surrender that quickly. He could not shake away the feeling that she might be planning something, otherwise, he saw no practical reason for her surrender.

"She did nearly get herself killed by jumping around all over the place," Kohakura reminded with a smirk. "She at least tried to put up a fight, but whatever the case. That's neither here nor there. Even though I really hate this mission, we need to get down to the fuel depot before Kano grows too impatient with us. Come along, now. It's still a good ways off but we can make it within the next our if we get a move on."

* * *

It would turn out that Vincent's suspicions of Re-L's supposed surrender were validated soon enough. Re-L would allow herself to be this Shape's captive for only about twenty minutes. She did not want to get too far away from the Obelisk. Luckily, every time she glanced back, she could see it looming in the horizon, but was growing further and further away from her. However, she also wanted to make sure she was away from the other Shapes before making her move. After all, it would be a pretty pointless ordeal if she did all of this just to turn a corner and be shot in the chest.

Re-L suddenly stopped in her tracks. She then reached into her coat and felt around for the only other weapon she had on her. She heard the Shape behind her stop his marching, but she continued to search for her pistol. She may have previously had it loaded with that single FP round which she ended up giving to Vincent, but that did not stop Re-L from loading a standard clip into it.

"Why did you stop," the Shape asked firmly. "Get a move on," he ordered. Just when he was about to forcefully shove Re-L forward until she resumed her walking, the woman in black turned around and aimed the pistol at his exposed life support pod and opened fire. She ended up having to unload the entire clip into the green pod before the Shape finally fell over, the life support pod stopped breathing as well.

Re-L let out a relieved sigh after the Shape hit the ground. She glanced around, checking her surroundings to make sure nobody had seen this. She already knew it would be a bad idea stick around. In moment now, backup would be en route to try and assist their fallen comrade. Their response times were incredibly fast. Re-L almost felt as if they operated on a strange hive mind and Kano was their unified conscious.

She quickly ran back the way she came, making sure to keep to the shadows as she ran. Re-L had little time to get a move on before reinforcements would arrive. She might actually have a little longer than what she assumed since most of the Shapes were still swarming the tunnels, but it still took no time it all for Kohakura and Vincent to receive back up.

The Shape in the long black coat would have ran straight for the Obelisk without so much as thinking about taking a break if it were not for a familiar young girl appearing directly in front of her. Re-L slid to a halt to keep from running into Ran. This young redheaded girl had not shown herself to Re-L for awhile now. Re-L was still relieved to see her only comrade in this insane city.

"Ran," Re-L stated in astonishment. "There you are. Where did you run off to? I had to search everywhere just to figure out a way to get down from the hill. I figured out where the Obelisk is and what it's does. I know to look for when I go to hunt Kano, but I still don't know where exactly his base is. All I know is it's located in some opera house. Ran. How do I shut down the Obelisk?"

The girl in the fox mask shrugged her shoulders quietly. She silently stared at Re-L for a few short minutes before giving a monotone answer. "_Kill it_," she whispered. "Kill it off like Onishi did. The Shapes will stop moving when you do. Don't worry about the power plant. It's useless to them if they have no way of receiving power."

"Kill it," Re-L asked. Ran nodded her head but this still did not sort out Re-L's confusion. "How do I kill it? It's an inanimate object. How could it possibly die? Do you want me to shoot it and wait for it to bleed to death?"

Surprisingly, Ran nodded her head at the sarcastic remark. "Do that. It'll bleed and die. The Obelisk isn't just a slab of concrete. It's Lux's heart. If you kill the resurrected heart, Lux cannot sustain texhnolyzation, and it will be rendered useless. However, be forewarned. I can see it all. I came here to warn you that there is still time for you to find a way out. You should just leave the city and ignore the Obelisk. This city is about to burn to the ground. If you press on to the Obelisk, you will eventually kill over."

Before Re-L could so much as utter a single word, Ran disappeared. Re-L rolled her eyes. For all she knew, this could very well be the last time Ran would interract with her. Re-L scratched her head at the curious girl. Needless to say, with that strange and rather blunt warning of the near future, Re-L did not go charging off for the Obelisk right off the bat. She stood their in the darkness, thinking on what she should do. Either she could Ran's extremely 'out of the blue' word for it, or she could press on to the Obelisk and end this whole Kano business herself.

Just when she was about to think this through, she heard shouting off in the middle of the street to her left. Re-L practically jumped out of her skin when she heard this. She twirled around and immediately spotted what looked like a battle of apparitions going on before her very eyes.

Re-L noticed a roadblock of Shapes occupying one section of the street. Just south of the roadblock was a large mass of men in black suits and a few other men in casual outfits charging Shape positions. In the middle of the street, directly adjacent to Re-L stood a man in an all white suit. He had combed back black hair and brown eyes. One detail Re-L noticed about this stranger was the sword he carried in his hand.

He appeared to be leading this attack on the Shapes. Re-L considered the thought of fleeing the scene before some of those Shapes noticed her but she decided against it. She quickly realized that nobody even noticed she was presently watching them. It was as if she were peering into someone's long lost memory. This battle waged on in front of her yet she herself felt no shock from this otherwise shocking scene. With every bullet or laser that went flying, none of it effected Re-L.

The man in the white suit stood next to an equally unfamiliar man wearing a black outfit and sunglasses. The two men were standing next to each other while their comrades ran towards the Shapes, only to have their limbs blown off or have a hole punched straight into their chests. After seeing how this battle was going nowhere, the man in white looked to the person next to him with a stern visage.

"This battle is completely futile. Withdraw your men," he ordered.

The man in black looked towards his ally, and gave a light smile which contradicted his previously flat expression. "Onishi. This is a battle to show our spirit. Our struggle is meant to inspire the comrades of this city."

"Kimata," Onishi muttered to try and get a word out but Kimata ignored his attempt to debate with him over the matter.

"The opera house down the road is their headquarters. I'm going to get there even if I'm the only man left standing."

With that, Kimata promptly threw himself into the frame. He ran up to a group of three Shapes and was able to successfully close-line all of them. They fell to the ground and Kimata ran straight past them.

He came close to another Shape and promptly punched it. The Shape stumbled out of the way, allowing Kimata to further progress down the road. Yet another Shape stepped in front of him. At this point, Kimata finally stopped his running only to grab the Shape by the arm and rip the metal limb clean off of its body. This insane bloodletter of a man then somehow managed quickly grab the Shape by the head before ripping it off of his body as well.

Kimata looked over his shoulder as he heard on of his soldiers hit the ground after being blasted by a Shape from behind. That particular Shape then aimed his rifle at Kimata and opened fire. Kimata suddenly moved his left arm in front of his head and it was promptly blasted off of his body, revealing that this arm was indeed a texhnolyzed limb.

The sight of him loosing this arm caused him to adopt a strange and almost excited grin. Kimata let out a shout as he charged straight into a crowd of Shapes. He punched one in the head with the only arm left on his body. He kicked another one to the ground. Kimata noticed another Shape preparing to shoot him. He grabbed the Shape he previously punched and forced it in front of him, using the mechanized soldier as a shield. The Shape's head was then blasted off, covering Kimata in blood.

Unfortunately, this was were the juggernaut would make a fatal mistake. He threw his only shield to the ground and was immediately blasted in the left side of his middle torso. Surprisingly, this did not kill Kimata. He let out another bloodthirsty cry and wanted to charge into the fight again, but he was given no chance to do so. The Shapes finally had their fill of his antics. They promptly swarmed him and stabbed him repeatedly with their wrist blades, tearing what was left of his body apart.

Onishi watched with a horrified look on his face as Kimata was shredded like a piece of paper. "Retreat," he called aloud, no longer having the will to continue this fight. He already knew it was hopeless after just a moment of watching the carnage. He was now convinced that he and the rest of these men needed to get out while they still had a chance to do so. "Everybody fall back! We have a truck waiting at the end of the alley! Get on it! That includes Union members!"

Nobody involved with Kimata's Salvation Union heeded Onishi's warning. Instead, the charged in just like their leader, shouting their coined signature phrase, "_Soul! Body! Truth! Salvation! Vengeance!_"

Right when Re-L was beginning to lose herself in this demented flashback, it was sucked away from her. The vehicles, men, corpses, and Shapes all faded away with out a single trace of their existence. Re-L stood on the sidewalk, dumbfounded. While she obviously had a clue as to the combat capabilities of the Shapes, she was now aware of just how dangerous they could be.

However, this was not what Re-L found to be the most troubling. She could simply not understand this city. It not only seemed to be haunted, but it appeared to have the sick desire to haunt her with terrifying images of the past.

Re-L exhaled, slightly shaking as she scanned the area for any sign of the ghostly scene which unfolded around her. "I shouldn't be here," she muttered to herself. She still could not see anything. There were no Shapes running after her even though she was still close to their dead comrade which she had only just recently killed. "I need to go. I have to keep moving," she whispered and clenched her hands into fists. Finally, she forced herself to move forward in the direction of the Obelisk.

"I have to put a stop to these people," she told herself as she stumbled on. Re-L seemed to have all but forgotten about Ran's warning. "Will I ever find a way out of this labyrinth? I don't want to die in a place like this. If I die here, will I ever be able to find my way out of this place? Will I be trapped her forever? Just like all those people who died here so long ago? They never found their way out either."

Re-L quickly shrugged this question away. She would only make the situation more tense by thinking this way. She had to move on. Not only was the ancient army of robotic beings breathing down her neck, but she still had many questions, mostly regarding her own newly applied Shape body. As Re-L moved through the world, she kept thinking about how could not wait to confront the man behind it all.


	8. Village of the Damned

**Village of the Damned**

Vincent and Kohakura made there way to the fuel depot across town after an hour of walking. By this point, Vincent had seen pretty much every inch of Lux on the count that they had been just about everywhere over these past few hours.

The two kept walking through the empty street they had been using for the past fifteen minutes as a straight path to the depot. It was now looming on the horizon, completely visible to them. After such a long and extended period of silence, Kohakura could no longer bear it. He suddenly slowed his pace, but did not halt the march.

"I think you can relax, now," Kohakura insisted, knowing that Vincent's silence was definitely hint that he could sense something wrong with the current situation. "Master Kano will talk some sense into your friend and I'm sure he also knew what he was doing when he gave us this mission. I'm sure we'll be on the surface in no time at all." Kohakura then looked down to the extra battery Vincent had attached to his new body. "I think you can also remove that old thing. The Obelisk is working now. We don't need those anymore."

Vincent slowed down as well just to keep from clearing too much distance from Kohakura now that he had acquired such a slow pace. Eventually, he stopped altogether before turning around and staring off into the ghostly skyline where the Obelisk could be seen, standing tall over the quiet town like a phantom reaping the lost souls from an ancient graveyard.

"You don't know that for sure," he replied flatly. "She's up to something or else she wouldn't have surrendered. She probably would have forced us to kill her had there not have been something else for her to do. She's also extremely stubborn. There's no way Re-L would ever listen to what anyone else has to say if it does not one hundred percent agree with her own opinions. I bet she's escaped and is on her way right back to the Obelisk to destroy while we have our backs turned. That's why I'm wearing the battery. Until she's no longer a threat, I'll keep wearing it."

Kohakura let out a long sigh, knowing there would be no real way rationalize with Vincent. He then got an idea. He perked up as soon as it came to mind. "Alright, how about this," he proposed with a light smile. "You keep going to the depot and I'll head back and guard the Obelisk? You do know what to do, right?"

"No, what do I need to do when I get there," asked Vincent. The two the turned back to face the fuel depot and Kohakura pointed to the entrance just to make sure they were both looking at the same thing to avoid confusion.

"Enter the building and navigate toward the back. Find the exit which will take you to the junkyard just beyond the depot. That is where all of the fuel was stored long before Lux died out on us." Kohakura then handed Vincent a small metal object. "Here," he stated as Vincent took it out of his metal hand. "Plant this near the barrels. It's a bomb. The time has already been set. Just flip this switch and get out of the area immediately. You'll wanna be, at the very least, a few blocks away when this thing goes off."

Vincent nodded his head and walked off. Kohakura watched closely as his comrade disappeared down the dark street ahead. He almost wanted to say something but decided against it. Instead, the ancient Shape silently turned around and the two were perfectly content with leaving each other to their own tasks were it not for a familiar yet hazy young boy appearing directly in front of Kohakura.

The Shapes stopped what they were doing as soon as he appeared. "_Zashi_," Kohakura announced in surprise. "What is the issue?"

"Do not split up," the young man flatly muttered. "That woman you speak of has indeed escaped and Master Kano is aware of the problem. However, he alone has a solution. He wants you both to plant the explosives in the depot and immediately return to the Obelisk. Kano does not plan to kill her off yet, but her assault on the Obelisk will be delayed."

Without even offering a moment to answer any questions the two Shapes might have, Zashi simply flickered out of sight. Kohakura confusedly glanced to Vincent, but he had no response to Kohakura's puzzled visage.

"Let's just go," Vincent eventually requested. "I'm sure Master Kano has it all under control."

* * *

Re-L made her way to the Obelisk in the most covert way possible. While it did not help that she was still a novice at controlling her new body, she was luckily able to get past the majority of the of Shapes in the area, which granted, were very few in number. Re-L figured most of them probably left by now. She was hoping that they would leave the Obelisk unguarded, but she would only know after seeing for herself.

She quickly realized with astonishment as she came to the end of a winding alley when she spotted the tall concrete and metal structure. Re-L forgot how close she initially was to the Obelisk's location and seeing it startled her ever so slightly. She averted her eyes to the left and then to the right. Re-L struggled to see past all of the little symbols and codes floating in her peripherals but she was still able to see that no one else appeared to be around except for her. "Weird," she thought, knowing that it was a little too suspicious that such an important monument had been left completely unguarded regardless of how many soldiers Kano needed to clear out the tunnels.

Re-L slowly approached the vast courtyard. She constantly scanned the windows of surrounding buildings as this was the perfect spot for yet another ambush and it even looked like a good hangout for snipers. Fortunately for her, nothing happened in this exposed area. She continued on toward the Obelisk and eventually made her way to a circular staircase which surrounded the entire monument.

She kept her eyes on every possible corner or shadow where a Shape could be hiding out, waiting to strike her down at the last second. She walked up the curved steps until she reached the top level where the Obelisk proudly stood.

Re-L paused briefly as she followed the Obelisk all the way up to the top just to see how tall the monument was in comparison to herself. The key to stopping this city in its tracks now rested before her. The only question was how might she possibly destroy this object of power? How will she go about yanking the very heart out of Lux.

She took a cautious step forward but abruptly looked down and moved her foot out of the way when she felt it step on something. Re-L narrowed her eyes at a beautiful sword which appeared to have simply been thrown on the ground. It was constructed like a Japanese katana and it starkly contrasted the far less visually appealing weapons Re-L had already seen scattered throughout the city streets.

As soon as she saw this glimmering weapon, Re-L heard a voice speak out in the back of her mind which practically made her jump. She searched around as it spoke to her yet she could not find the source of where it was coming from. Other than this familiar voice which sounded very similar to the young man she met when exploring the old city of 'the Class,' she was completely alone out here.

"_Did I ever tell you how we got started_," the voice asked, echoing through Re-L's mind. "Me, Hal, and this one other guy started the Rakan. This guy Tomo. He was a year older than me. He was the original leader. Back then, there was another gang of kids besides the Rakan. And just when we were about to have a spectacle against them... this Tomo... he chickened out."

"Who are you," Re-L questioned aloud, but the voice did not give her a proper answer. She quickly shut herself up after realizing this was probably another memory of the city revealing itself to her, just like she had seen several times before. She simply listened as the voice continued its rant.

"Spectacle, after spectacle, after spectacle," the voice exclaimed. "We beat the shit out of them every time! Like you wouldn't believe. And then, as much as we were winning, we got tired of having spectacles against kids all the time. So we decided to go kill the Organo guys in their suits."

Re-L adopted a confused expression when she heard the sound of a motorcycle engine abruptly come to life in the background, but this voice just kept talking.

"But don't hold a grudge against me. I'm tired of you guys. So now I'm gonna start a spectacle with the light on the hill, and there's no one left to stop me since all those Shapes turned to crap."

Re-L instantly twirled herself back around to face the Obelisk shortly after this voice fell silent and was replaced by a new and even more familiar persona. This voice did not come from her mind, but directly in front of the Obelisk. It was the same voice from that man she had seen earlier. After turning around, she noticed who it was that was speaking. A hazy figure of a man in a white suit. It was the same man she saw just recently in a bloody battle against the Shapes during what she assumed was the time just before the fall of Lux.

The man she had already figured out was named 'Onishi' stood in between her and the Obelisk. He did face her, but just like before, he did not seem to take note of her presence. He held the exact same sword that now lied at her feet. Onishi aimed the edge of the sword against his right leg and sliced that side of his pants open only to reveal the metal substitute for what should be an organic limb.

"I felt affection for these legs the first time they stopped functioning," he muttered to himself in a defeated tone. There was a long moment of hesitation before he spoke again. "There's no way for me to know if I'm really sane anymore. If I am, then for the very first time in my life... I have no idea what I should do."

Onishi looked up and scanned the skyline of Lux in confusion. "Voice of the city that has spoken to me all these years. Please tell me."

Re-L gave a single attempt at grasping Onishi's attention but as she suspected, it did not work. He was still existing in a time period long forgotten by the world outside of this city. He turned away from her and placed his hand on the concrete surface of the Obelisk.

"Please tell me," he repeated. "What would you have me do?" Onishi hesitated once again as if he were waiting to receive an answer from the Obelisk itself. "If that's... your wish," he finally concluded and pushed himself away from the monument so that he may properly brace himself for what was to come.

Naturally, Re-L was slightly confused by what was going on, but it took her no time at all to figure it out.

Onishi stood their with his hands at his sides for several minutes. Re-L began hearing chatter from random people a good distance behind her, yet every time she glanced over her shoulder, there was no one in sight.

The man in the suit then lifted his sword in the air, readying it to finally kill this seemingly living monument. "If the only way to be great at life in this world is to surrender my body and soul to insanity," Onishi shouted. "Then I shall choose to meet my doom!"

Re-L heard one last thing after he impaled the Obelisk. Another voice sounded off from behind her. It felt to be a good distance away but Re-L could still easily hear the scream.

"_Onishi!_"

Keigo forced his sword straight through the Obelisk, as he did this, his body and the sword he held in his hand faded from Re-L's sight. She practically jumped out of her skin when she heard a vast number of automatic weapons open fire from behind, but even that noise faded along with him and could only be heard for a split second.

Re-L turned around to see where all of that noise had come from, but yet again, there was no one in sight. She then returned her attention to the Obelisk only to see a new person standing in front of it with their back leaned against the tall monument.

It was a young man who was probably around her age. He had shoulder length blue hair and vivid amber eyes. There was a small smile present on his face as he teasingly glared at Re-L. While she was unsure as to whom this person could be, she definitely had a good theory about him.

"Are you this Kano guy I've been hearing so much about," Re-L inquired in a flippant tone of voice. Her curiosity was confirmed with a single nod of Kano's head.

"And you must be Re-L Mayer of Romdeau," he murmured. "I've waited so long for someone else to come down this solitary road and revive my brain child. Lux died so long ago, but that does not mean it cannot be brought back."

Re-L lifted a cynical eyebrow at him. "How long were you manipulating Vincent? Why even drag us into this when I know for a fact that you can interract with the physical world even though you're obviously a ghost?"

"I'm the brains of this world," Kano retorted calmly. "Not the muscle. Vincent was perfectly willing to help me out of the kindness of his heart. That's far more than what I can say for you. You know... my people were driven mad along with the city of Lux. It has come to my attention that Theoria has contacted you. Do you realize that it was her who drove this city into the ground? Whatever the case maybe, I only came to finally meet with you. I want to know how you're adjusting to your new body. I was worried that you might have died due to complications in surgery. You were the first female to become a Shape. How does it feel?"

"I feel like I want to go on a killing spree because of it," Re-L admitted. "I'd start with you if you weren't already dead. I guess I'll just have to settle with killing Vincent and that new friend of his. However, that Obelisk will have to be the first to go so step aside."

The last thing Kano seemed to be willing to do was step away from the Obelisk as he was instructed. His grin grew wider ever so slightly at the order. Kano crossed his arms and looked down to his mechanical feet. "Why do you want to kill Lux," asked Kano. "What did our city ever do to you? We just finished reviving it with the help of your friend, Vincent. Do you really want to reverse all of our efforts and hard labor... just like you did with Romdeau?"

Re-L furrowed an eyebrow as soon as she heard the familiar name of her home town being uttered by this undying entity. "You seem to know a lot about the world above, don't you? Romdeau is far from here, was it Vincent who gave you the name of it?"

"No," Kano dismissively replied. "I watched it for the longest time. It does not matter how close nor far from here that old city was, what matters is that you destroyed it. You, and you alone. For whatever reason, Re-L Mayer grew tired of her own city and decided to burn it down with everyone in it. Now, you want to do the same with Lux. I'm sorry, Miss Mayer, but I cannot allow your taint to spread to our underground sanctuary as well."

"This city was alive," Re-L slowly confirmed as she shifted her gaze back up to the top of the Obelisk. "Then you came along and killed it. Isn't that right? And what makes you think I'm responsible for Romdeau's downfall when I was a hundred miles away when it's destruction was first set into motion."

Kano solemnly shook his head. "That is incorrect. You were the one to set it into motion. It was your fault. This leads me back to my primary question. Why did you even come here? None of your little friends want you here in the first place. You could have drove on and left this place behind without a single glance back. Why did you refuse to neglect Lux?"

"I had to find out where Vincent, Pino, and Kristeva went," Re-L snapped. "Of course, you probably know where they all are right now!"

The blue haired individual shrugged his shoulders. He most certainly did know where they were, but he was not quite in the mood to elaborate on this in any way. "They all joined me after reaching a point of enlightenment. Those androids reached a higher form of understanding than you seem to be able to. I would not necessarily consider that a complement, especially with the installment of your new body."

Re-L was on the verge of making some form of retort to Kano's words, but he became far too bored with this conversation. She was not getting to the Obelisk, that much is certain to him, and it was one of the only two reasons he came out here other than to simply taunt her. "I no longer have any need of speaking with you, or at least, not right now," he commented. "I will speak to you again when you wake up and I look forward to that moment, but for now..." He cut himself off, this last comment confused Re-L more than anything else Kano had said so far, but she would quickly realize what was happening when she notice him silently gesturing for her to turn around, and so she did.

When Re-L turned around, she was greeted by three figures. She identified the first figure in between the other two to be yet another ghost. He wore a white uniform and matching headdress which covered his eyes. He also held a small remote in his right arm which contained a single dial on it. The two figures on either side of him were both Shapes armed with those incredibly devastating rifles which were currently aimed in no other direction but Re-L's.

"Zashi," Kano announced. "Go ahead and put her down for now. I'll deal with her at a later time."

"Yes sir," Zashi replied confidently. He slowly turned the dial. He only slightly moved it from its original position but that was enough to cause Re-L to simply pass out as a result of some device in her body reacting to this remote in an instant. She collapsed to the ground where she did not stir, regardless of how many disturbances might be unfolding around her.

* * *

Kohakura led the way through entrance area of the depot. Vincent had already spotted several nice locations to plant a few bombs near random stacks of barrels which were probably filled to the brim with preserved fuel which was only waiting to be set ablaze by this mechanical duo.

Bunken came to a stop in front of an old desk which looked to Vincent like a reception area. He decided to ignore Kohakura's hesitation and continued onward in a separate direction. He approached a nearby window that only granted him a rather expansive view of the brick wall which made up the practically decimated building just across the street.

"Vincent," Kohakura called out which immediately gained the other Shape's attention. Vincent ran up to the spot Kohakura had selected to stand in for these past few seconds. "You wait here. I'm going to take the explosives inside. The reason I don't want you coming with me is because I don't want you getting disorientated or lost when it's most inconvenient for us. Just wait out here and when you see me running, well... you do the same."

"Alright, I'll stay here," Vincent agreed without any desire to argue. He too was starting to grow worried about losing all sense of direction in a building he had never ventured into even with Kohakura there to help guide him.

Instead of following behind, Vincent did as asked and walked over to a nearby bench toward the side of the room where he proceeded to sit down. He then watched closely as Kohakura walked through the open doorway behind that assumed reception desk and into the darkness beyond.

* * *

Kohakura made his way to the far end of the depot's interior. The storage room was exactly where the explosives needed to be planted. Zashi had already gone over the proper details for this operation. The only thing left was to locate the specific area which would have the most impact on the fuel throughout the building.

Eventually, he spotted it, a set of barrels located near a fuse box on the wall. This appeared to be the perfect location. Kohakura hurried through this enormous storage room which still managed to be hard to navigate through due to the amount of garbage and old tools hidden away inside.

The Shape quickly came to a stop after closing in on the objective. He knelt down and tilted his head as he examined the barrel closest to him. He then looked to the three small charges he carried with him. Each of them were slightly curved as if to match the shape of these barrels. On the back of each charge was a sticky residue which was undoubtedly the only thing which would keep them in place, and on the front side was a small number pad and narrow screen to fill in the proper amount of time that would count down before the final detonation.

He grabbed a random charge out of his left arm and pressed it against the nearest barrel. Kohakura then aimed his metallic index finger at the number panel before he realized something. It would be a stupid mistake to start a timer now when he still had to find the proper locations to plant the other two bombs. Kohakura shuttered as he moved his hand away from the bomb and made a mental note of where he left it. The Shape then promptly stood upright and walked off to go hunt down the last two spots in this haunting facility.

* * *

Re-L woke up in a brightly lit office. It contrasted greatly with the grim and dark environment she had grown use to after being trapped underground. She sat upright off the layer of carpet underneath her and frantically looked around while simultaneously trying to adjust her eyes to the unexpected wave of light.

Her eyes soon focused in and Re-L was able to see the interior of the room she was now lost inside. There was a large round table in the center of the office which was surrounded by a handful of chairs. There was also a single jade statue which stood at the center of the table. The most striking feature about the room which jumped right out at Re-L was the ten Shapes she counted standing behind the table with their weapons aimed at the other side of the room.

Re-L instantly realized she was once again viewing another memory of Lux. Normally, a distraction would merely irritate her, but her natural curiosity always found these to be very interesting. She quickly followed the direction their rifles were facing and spotted a man who appeared to be this 'Onishi' character she has heard so much about since arriving here. He stood, facing a large line of windows and payed no attention to the Shapes.

"Keigo Onishi," one of the Shapes asked sternly, his voice filtered heavily just as every other one of Kano's soldiers who's faces were trapped underneath those strange one-eyed helms. Re-L kept exchange glances between _Onishi_ and the small force of Shapes which had him quite literally backed against a wall.

"That's right," the man in the white suit stated cockily. Re-L narrowed her eyes at this man after hearing the unfamiliar voice. It sounded nothing like the Onishi she had seen when exploring this demented underworld.

Without any warning, the man abruptly twirled around and spread his coat apart to reveal a series of explosives strapped to his torso and a lit fuse which was just about to ignite the whole thing. This confirmed Re-L's suspicion as the man bared no resemblance to the actual Onishi. "I've been waiting for you," the stranger screamed. "_See!?_"

Re-L closed her eyes tightly and held her hand over her face to properly shield herself from the coming explosion. Within a split second after he shouted that last phrase, the entire room lit up in a blaze of smoke and fire, but surprisingly enough, Re-L was unaffected by this explosion.

* * *

She slowly opened her eyes after not feeling herself being burnt alive. Re-L jumped when she finally did completely open her eyes, only to find that she was in an entirely different setting this time. She found herself in an abandoned parking lot rather than the primary meeting room in the Organo's headquarters.

For no clear reason, or at least none that she could figure out, the _daylight_ which she had seen previously was now totally absent. The dark parking lot was all she could see apart from a few streets with one or maybe two lamps looming above them off in the background. She could see about three spaced out cars which appeared to have been abandoned in this area at some point.

Out of nothing more than the most simplistic of impulses, Re-L looked down to her feet where she spotted a small lizard watching her from the concrete surface just in front of her right foot. It stared at her for sometime before scampering off into the shadows. Re-L followed the lizard's path with her eyes until something else distracted her from that little reptilian.

Just to her left was a large pool of blood with no identifiable source. It looked as if someone had gotten a couple limbs chopped off here, but there was no way for Re-L to verify this since there was no body in sight nor any suspicious characters on the scene.

Of course, it was only when she finally felt alone when Re-L suddenly twirled around after gaining an abrupt sensation which might have suggested that someone was watching her. Surely enough, this was indeed the case. The first thing Re-L saw when she turned around was the familiar face of that creepy teenage girl, Ran.

The red headed mute lifted a flower just above her face and handed it to Re-L. Naturally, the goth loving woman stepped forward and took it out of her hand. She had seen these flowers before but only when Ran was present. Otherwise, it was a species that she was completely unaware of, prior to arriving in Lux.

Re-L lowered the flower and returned her attention to Ran. "Have you been showing me all of these weird flashbacks," she bluntly questioned. "Why are you wasting my time with them? Just show me how to evade the Shapes long enough to take out the Obelisk! Then all I have to do is find Vincent and kill him."

"Do you have those flowers on the surface," asked Ran. She ignored just about everything Re-L previously said which made her extremely irritable. Re-L only responded to this by shooting a harsh glare at the young girl.

"No," she snapped. "We don't have any flowers on the surface now tell me what I need to do and stop showing me all of these worthless memories! I need to get to the Obelisk undetected, kill Vincent, and escape... _Can you guide me?_"

"You don't like the memories," Ran's emotionless voice flared up once again in a quizzical fashion. "If I don't show you the memories then no one will be able to remember our city. If no one remembers, we might as well have never existed."

Re-L rolled her eyes at Ran's obsession to change the subject. She figured it would be best to at least humor her with a response. "There are plenty of ghosts around here like yourself to remember them so why don't you worry about that? I'll worry about destroying that Obelisk and getting out of here! Now show me where it is that I need to be!"

"But you already know... where it is that you need to be," Ran retorted calmly. "You need to be at the Obelisk, then with Vincent, then you need to return to the world above. Those are the places you need to be and in that order."

"I'm not going to die here," Re-L threatened. "I won't allow my soul to be released in this portal to hell you people disguised as a city! I'm not going to end up trapped down here like all of you. It won't happen. All I have to do is make sure I'm as far away from this city as possible when I finally do meet the end of my days. It shouldn't be too hard, right? I can still find a way out of Lux, can't I?"

Ran uttered only one word in response. She said one more thing and disappeared right before Re-L's eyes.

"_No._"


	9. Into the Fire

**Into the Fire**

The Centzon's lonely movements through a silent wasteland made the entire scene all the more eerie. Re-L snapped out of a strange daze while she sat at the table. She immediately noticed that she was not the only one present in the lower decks of the ship.

Sitting in the chair on her left was the familiar face of Kano with his cocky yet calm smile which was halfway blocked by his long blue locks. He pridefully glared at the person sitting on the other side of the table who Re-L quickly identified to be the same woman she met on her way down the hill to Lux. The only woman she had met with that style of blonde hair and that ominous accent she always spoke with.

The three sat in total silence for a couple of minutes. Re-L waited for either of them to say a word. Dr. Kaneda kept her eyes locked on the surface of the table, even after she had finally decided to break the silence.

"You and your army of freaks were the ones responsible for Lux's downfall. Not me. I was on the verge of creating something much greater than mere weapons," Doc informed in a defeated tone. "What was the point in turning your nose up at my achievement when you new Ichise was a great example of what humanity could become in just a few more generations?"

Kano instantly shook his head at Doc's argument. "What on earth are you talking about," he comically questioned, his smile widening as he spoke. "There is nothing left to achieve in the field of texhnolyzation aside from what I had already created when you created the two limbs you are referring to. There is no other way to advance this technology."

Doc suddenly looked up from the table with a vile expression on her face. Out of all the things she expected Kano to say in response, that had not even crossed her mind. "How can you say that with a straight face? If you believe that then why even create the Shapes? It's nothing more than blatant to stupidity to say there isn't a way to help human evolution through improving texhnolyzation."

"You act as if texhnolyzation is what was actively evolving humanity," Kano retorted without hesitation. Doc was even more cut off by this statement. She looked as if she were a child and someone had just admitted to her that Santa Clause was nothing more than a myth. "If I were to create a new limb which moves twice as fast as one of your older models," Kano serenely explained. "You would call that evolution? Well, it's not. Biological evolution is the concept in which an organism begins to make use of its surroundings. As the generations go by and the species in question becomes more accustomed to said environment; natural changes in their bodies will manifest in order to adapt to this shift in ecology. Some species preform this faster than others, and some die out as a result of either failing to evolve due to the amount of time it takes, or no longer possessing the ability to do so."

As Kano continued his argument, Doc maintained her offended appearance while Re-L listened closely; only wanting to see what point Kano was trying to convey to the doctor.

"What we are talking about here is the evolution of technology," Kano admitted. "And even then, the term 'evolution' is actually being used improperly. Just because I improve on a limb of your creation or vice versa means nothing in regards to humanity. If one person gains an old version of a texhnolyzed arm, and the next person a few years later is given an improved model; how can that be considered humanity's evolution. It simply is not, and to assert that it is, would be to defy the very definition of the term in question. I acknowledged this and created a system in which humanity could deal with a serious problem that constantly plagued us. As I said before, we were either no longer able to evolve, or we were simply waiting for the next natural step in evolution to find us. Either way, I created the Shapes so that humanity could survive in those desperate times, and it worked. All of my Shapes are still here. Where are your subjects, Kaneda? What happened to that boy you put so much emphasis on?"

A wicked smile suddenly replaced his look of confidence as he pretended to remember the answer to his own question. "Oh, that's right. He died. I'm sure it was a very painful death, as well."

"He died because your army of freaks invaded the city," Doc relentlessly argued. "Otherwise, he could have lived on to prove everything I was saying as truth! If the Class listened to me and not your crazy ideals, this city would still be alive to this day, and not in the form of some mangled corpse being paraded and dragged around by you."

Kano quickly grew tired of this discussion. He rolled his eyes and stood up from the table. Before taking his leave, he said one more thing to the woman before him. "You accomplished nothing, and that is why I was able to make the final step in the advancement of texhnolyzation," he coldly informed. "You did not discover a new means of evolution, you only held us all back. You did not abandon the Class, we abandoned you when you started using your work as an excuse to feed your twisted little perversions. The sooner you come to realize this, the better off we will all be."

The blue haired ghost promptly faded away before Doc could retort him, either with a proper argument, or a desperate insult. She lowered her head down to the table once again. Re-L was about to stand up and attempt to make her leave as well just to figure out where she was at this point, but to her surprise, Doc stopped her before she could stand up out of her chair.

"We were born in a time when the world seemed as if it were going to end, and for us it did," the despairing woman announced, this being one of the only times a 'ghost' of Lux has directly addressed her. "After spending so much time being trapped in in this terrible place, I cannot quite place what truly caused the downfall of Lux. It could have been the Shapes or the Seer's meddling in the minds of the population. Maybe Lux was just getting old. Perhaps it was a combination of all these things. Either way, this still does not explain why all of our souls are forbidden to leave this dark world."

Re-L narrowed her eternally cynical eyes at Dr. Kaneda. "I don't care why you're here. Just tell me how to get out of this place."

"If I knew that, do you really think I would be wasting my time talking to you right now," asked Doc.

Before Re-L had time to say anything, the doctor disappeared. She faded away without having the need to say goodbye. Re-L turned away and decided to move on. However, that would not be as easy as she initial anticipated. Once again, Lux appeared to be toying with her mind.

As soon as she started off for the metal door that would lead her to the upper deck of the Centzon, Re-L realized that she was no longer in the Centzon at all. She looked down a dark and narrow alley set between two tall buildings. Judging by the architecture, she could clearly see she was back in Lux.

Re-L glanced back to see if the scene behind her had changed, and as she was beginning to suspect, it had. The other half of this ominous alleyway lead off to a street behind her. Instead of heading backwards, Re-L turned back and continued on in the direction she was previously headed.

She took a single step forward only to instinctively back off when she noticed a door on the building to the right, directly in front of her swung open. A middle aged man she had no means of recognizing suddenly burst forth from the darkness of that mysterious building and ran off towards the nearest open street as fast as he possibly could. In the split second she had to see him, Re-L could easily tell that something had genuinely terrified him.

That sight was all she needed to justify investigating the interior of the building. As soon as that horrified phantasm left her sight and showed no signs of returning, she slowly approached the open door.

* * *

Re-L crept inside with extreme caution. Once she had placed her foot on the wooden floor of the building beyond, she was met with a chilling whisper. It came to her just before her brain had time to process what her eyes were seeing.

"_Let her die_," Ran's familiar voice quietly ordered from the back of her mind. Re-L ignored the whisper as Ran was nowhere in sight and what Re-L saw in the room ahead was far greater interest to her.

Re-L had no trouble realizing that she was walking into an extremely low class bar. It was dimly lit with only a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The bar itself was covered in the blood spilled by two unfortunate souls who looked to have only recently been murdered in the most brutal of methods.

The gruesome sight was ironically, not what kept Re-L's attention the longest. She looked towards the very back of the room. Sitting at a booth was familiar man in a solid white suit. He held a well crafted sword in his lap. To the right of him was the brutalized corpse of a young woman in what appeared to be a blue dress. Re-L had no idea who that person was, and it was hard to see her face given all the blood covering her head.

"You," Re-L quietly announced, already under the assumption that the man had no way of communicating with her. She walked past a duo of sliced up dead bodies and made her way to the only 'living' person in the room. "I've seen you before. Your name is Onishi, correct? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you," the man Re-L claimed to be named 'Onishi' replied. "You're the woman who's been trying to immobilize Kano's troops."

Re-L nodded her head as a glimmer of hope washed over her. "I think this city has been attempting to show me something all this time. I kept seeing you fighting the Shapes. What happened to this place? Can you explain it to me? What happened to Lux? I have to know!"

"I can't remember how long it's been since I saw daylight," Onishi mumbled in a tone of pure defeat. He did not take his eyes off the cracked ground while he spoke. "This city was built almost a century before I was born. It was meant to contain those who believed in the idea of texhnolyzation. They were known as the _Lost Generation_ to many residing up on the surface world. The Class was nothing special. They were in the exact same position but they had a lot more money and resources so they constructed their enclave and shut themselves off from Lux and Gabe."

"What about Gabe," Re-L inquired. "What's their story? The reason I asked is because I passed through that town on the way to Lux. Why are they separated from the people of Lux?"

It took Onishi a few seconds to formulate a response. Re-L was about to press for an answer, but Onishi interrupted her before she had the chance. "Gabe should be viewed as a cult town. They use to govern Lux until the Organo took everything over for themselves. They practically worship the Seer. She oversees the future of Lux and everyone in it. I think it was her that drove the city insane. If I had the heart and foresight, I would have executed her before she had the chance."

Re-L curiously tilted her head when the word 'Seer' was mentioned. "The Seer," she asked with a quizzical visage. "That girl with the mask. The one with the red hair and pigtails. Was it her?"

"Kano believed she was his sister," Onishi insisted. "I don't see how that's possible, because the Seer is always born in Gabe and Kano was a member of the Class. Either way, he sent out wave after wave of Shapes to retrieve her and they eventually pushed us back long enough to take her away. That was the last I ever saw of her. I ended up turning my back on the Seer so that I could finally kill Lux for good. I impaled the Obelisk and for the longest time, it was all over."

Re-L widened her eyes upon hearing this. "That's it," she exclaimed. "The Obelisk! I have to destroy it! You shut it all down just with that sword!? All I have to do is get there without those metal circus freaks kicking the shit out of me and Kano's forces will be deactivated, right?"

Onishi abruptly lifted his sword up for Re-L to take. The woman did as silently requested and carefully examined the familiar edge.

"At one point Lux was alive," Onishi explained. "However, after so much abuse, it was the people Lux mothered which ended up destroying it. Thanks to those friends of yours, Lux is now nothing but a shambling corpse. It's a horrible monstrosity forced to dance around like some demented, rotting puppet with Kano and Zashi pulling the strings. To kill Lux would mean to finally end all of this. I honestly don't know how long I've been sitting here. This place decayed in silence for so many years. I wondered if anyone on the surface who might still be alive had any recollection of what went on down here."

"I'll destroy the Obelisk as soon as I can," Re-L informed. "I just need to get there without being ambushed or intercepted for the fifth time in a row."

"Regardless of whether you are able to reach the Obelisk or not," Onishi muttered in sorrow. "This city is done for. If you don't destroy it. The fire will."

Re-L was instantly taken aback by this statement. She remembered an explosion, but was the concrete city of Lux truly on fire? "What do you mean, the fire will destroy it," she asked, but her inquiries were totally ignored.

"I really hope I will be allowed to see Mana again, after Lux's cremation." Onishi replied before his entire body slowly faded back into the shadows.

* * *

Re-L finally opened her eyes. She woke up from that little nightmare in total disarray. Re-L tightly gripped a sword in her hands. The same sword she picked up at the foot of the Obelisk, but it had yet to have been taken from her by the shapes.

She had no idea where she was at this point. Re-L looked around the dark area surrounding her. She quickly realized she was inside an extremely lavish building. Her back rested against a row of red seats. Re-L forced herself up into a sitting position where she proceeded to scan the area for any signs or landmarks that might give her a good idea as to which part of the city she was in.

It was obvious to her that she was no where near the Obelisk. The last place where she vividly remembered being consciously awake. The room she must have been sleeping in for a considerably long period of time was flooded with smoke. She probably should have found it difficult to breath in such an environment and while it did burn her eyes, the organic pod directly attached to her head made breathing easy.

While this was one of the many examples of her 'new body' working in her favor; in Re-L's eyes, it only served as a reminder that she was no longer fully human. Re-L looked down to her artificial hand. Her metal fingers occasionally twitched at random, but over the course of her little adventure, she was able to control her body's movements, for the most part.

"It's you," a feminine voice abruptly called out from the darkness. Re-L lifted her head up towards an empty aisle just a few feet ahead of herself. She immediately snapped out of her dazed state when she figured out who that voice belonged to.

It was young girl just as artificial as she, herself, had become. A young girl with purple hair stood in the empty aisle of what Re-L could only assume to be some theater or opera house. The little girl stared at Re-L with a pair of large dead eyes.

"Pino," Re-L abruptly inquired. "What are you doing here? Where am I?"

A smile broke out across Pino's face. "You're in Mr. Kano's house," she brightly informed. Her loud and innocent demeanor contradicted just about everything she had previously seen in this dark city that seemed to only be interested in imprisoning the souls of the damned.

"Who brought me here," Re-L inquired with a growing sense of irritation.

Pino failed to notice the aggressive aura Re-L was giving off and answered the question as she normally would. "Kohakura and Vincent! They brought you here! I think Zashi was with them."

"Those two," she curiously repeated and Pino nodded her head. "What are you people trying to do? Why was I left out? How long were you planning to come down here in this rat infested pit at the center of the earth?"

"I think I should be the one to answer those questions," Kristeva interjected from off in the background. Re-L looked away from Pino and located the other AutoReiv standing in the shadows towards the back of the auditorium.

She shot a hateful glare at Kristeva. "Go on, then," she irritably ordered.

Kristeva glanced to her left where a dim source of light was coming from, but Re-L kept her eyes firmly focused on the darkly dressed AutoReiv. "Master Kano reached out to Vincent almost a month in advance," she nonchalantly informed. "Due to both Pino and I being completely artificial entities, he also took a fond interest in us, and asked us to come to Lux with Vincent. Pino declined all of my protests and I was eventually forced to follow her here. To be honest, I think we were all getting a little tired of your oppressive presence. Master Kano probably noticed this, and your extremely limited perspective. I believe this is why he did not invite you to join us on this excursion."

Re-L narrowed her wrathful eyes at Kristeva. These polite attempts to evade hostility were failing miserably on the AutoReiv's part. "_Limited perspective_," she questioned. "If you consider not wanting to chop off my own head and have it attached to a useless metal mannequin as limiting my own perspective then I would have to agree with you."

Kristeva quickly noticed Re-L's growing hostility. "Please understand that we left you with the ship and all the supplies you would need to leave this region behind and never come back. I cannot comprehend why you decided to follow us into Lux."

"It was probably because I wanted to know why the people I've lived with over the past year just randomly decided to get up and leave one day without telling me," Re-L snapped. "I don't give a damn about the supplies. I wrecked the ship and almost died when I entered the city," she snarled as her end of the conversation slowly transformed into a rant she appeared to have been constructing in her head for a long time.

"Surely it's okay if we talk to her, now, Kristeva," Pino announced. That statement alone shocked Re-L more than anything else she had heard up until this point.

Pino rambled on, regardless of how angry Re-L was obviously becoming. "She's one of us now, right," Pino inquired. "She's just like Vincent and Kohakura with that new body Kano gave her. Re-L is also the same as you and I, is she not? Can she stay with us now that she's a Shape? And what about Vince," she abruptly asked upon him popping up in her metallic brain. "Vincent said she betrayed us but maybe he'll fall back in love with her after this."

The insentient reminders brought on by Pino's questioning finally drove Re-L mad. It was at that very moment when Re-L remembered that she still had Onishi's sword in her hands. The very idea of someone else calling her a Shape or something similar to an AutoReiv instantly sent her over an edge of rage.

However, it was not that alone which caused Re-L to lash out in such an abrupt way. Out of nothing more than a tempest of wrath, Re-L lifted Onishi's sword high over her head. Pino failed to notice this action, as she was too busy attempting to convince Kristeva to allow Re-L to stay with them.

Before Kristeva had been given the proper amount of time needed to react, Re-L brought the ancient blade down upon the crown of Pino's head. It sliced clean through the cloth of her rabbit costume and practically split her head in half.

Sparks from her internal circuitry erupted from the wound like a machine's version of a torrent of blood. The hardware allowing Pino's brain to operate shut down due to the damage Re-L inflicted. Silence spilled down upon the room. As more and more smoke poured in from the city beyond these walls, a small amount of life in Pino's artificial eyes faded away. The cybernetic girl slowly slid out from underneath the stagnant blade and collapsed to her knees. Without the chance to say another word, Pino fell flat on her face.

"I didn't betray anyone," she shouted. Re-L then stood up and charged Kristeva's position. By the time the AutoReiv was able to process what had just happened Re-L was already way too close for comfort.

Without a single hint of hesitation, Re-L swung the sword towards Kristeva. Onishi's edge cut through the side of Kristeva's head, destroying the AutoReiv upon impact. Re-L pulled the sword out of Kristeva's iron head and allowed the cybernetic being to collapse to the ground in the same way Pino had just done.

Re-L then lowered the sword and forced herself to relax. "It was me who was betrayed," she harshly announced to this underground world. "Vincent had gone crazy and allowed Kano to lead him straight into this hellhole! You, on the other hand, weren't trying to protect Pino! You capitalized on the Shapes! All of you did! You figured you would be better off replacing me with that psycho!"

Re-L then turned towards the light towards the front of the auditorium. It was the only area that held such a light. Of course, the first thing she saw was probably the last person she wanted to lay her eyes on right now.

Kano sat in a throne upon a massive stage. To his right stood that same boy wearing that elaborate headdress. The boy she had come to know as Zashi. To the left of Kano was a two headed statue. It appeared to be made from the same alloy used to create the bodies of the Shapes. Despite this creepy statue, and Zashi's ominous presence, Re-L focused her attention straight on that smiling blue haired menace.

"Kano," Re-L greeted in a not so friendly manner. Her stern tone of voice was evenly matched with Kano's lack of emotion during such a tense situation.

"Hello again," he flatly replied. He rested his chin in the palm of his right hand. "A little cranky are we? I guess you're not a morning person."

Re-L shook her head in response. "No. No, I am not. Tell me, what's your story? Why did you target us? What is your deal? What does a spirit such as yourself want from the physical world. Why don't you and everyone else who previously lived here just move on?"

Kano gave Zashi a teasing glance before giving Re-L the answers she truly desired. "You act as if we all have conspired to stay here on purpose. Miss Mayer, I can assure you that this is not the case. If I could, I would have left a long time ago, but I have certain obligations to my people. That, and Lux appeared to have decided long ago that it would detain our souls here for as long as possible."

"That doesn't make any sense," Re-L abruptly screamed. Her harsh voice echoed through the walls of the opera house as she spoke. "Not a goddamn thing you just said makes any sense at all! Everyone I've seen so far talks nonstop about Lux being behind everything! Lux did this! Lux did that!" Re-L briefly paused before continuing her tangent. "It's just a city! Do you really expect me to believe this city is or was at some point in time, alive!? Alive and breathing and capable of sentient thoughts!? Do you know how bat shit insane you people sound!?"

"Yes," Kano admitted. "Of course it sounds crazy to you. That's only because you, yourself, have never lived within the confines of Lux. You would naturally have no idea about life here, so allow me to educate you."

Re-L appeared to take slight interest into what Kano was saying. In response to his offer to provide her with a little more history, she took a seat near Kristeva's broken body and listened closely to whatever Kano planned to say.

"The city has always been alive. It has been known to single out important individuals and whisper to them. I was not one of them in the beginning. In fact, Lux mostly ignored those residing in either the Class or Gabe," Kano explained. "While there has always been a Seer, it is often believed that Lux possessed the child early on and allows them to be a proxy of sorts. Enabling the mind of the city to communicate more frequently with the common folk. I always thought it was rubbish until I too heard the voices. Shortly after discovering Lux's independence, I ordered the new men I had built to help the city. Not destroy it."

Re-L tilted her head at the unusual way Kano explained things to her. If it were not for hearing everything Onishi told her in that dream, he would probably have just created more questions than he had answered. "So the city was actually alive," asked Re-L. "If that was the case, and the city was technically governing itself through the Organo, then why did you feel the need to invade? If it truly was a living being, did you lose all trust in the place you lived?"

Kano gave Re-L nod of conformation upon hearing her questions. "My dear Theoria was one of the only people who use to agree with me when we were little. It was both sides of my lovely sister that originally helped me realized my dream. Something needed to change within Lux. When my dear sister died, I pursued the vision she helped me create when we were young."

"Tell me about your sister," Re-L requested. While she knew this would sidetrack the conversation, she was simply growing too curious about Kano. Having already heard this history before from Onishi, the only thing she did not understand at the moment was Kano himself. "What was she like? How did she die? What about that statue? Why do I keep feeling like it means something?"

"You're very observant," Kano complemented. He was naturally surprised by her connection to the statue. It was the first time someone ever actually questioned him about this weird looking artifact. "The statue is a representation of my dear Theoria," he informed. "You see, she and I were born from a family that has a very strict breeding program. Our bloodline is based primarily through our siblings mating with each other, as well as our parents mating with their offspring. With that knowledge, I'm sure it's not hard for you to imagine that this statue is not symbolic, it is meant to depict exactly what my dear sister looked like when she was still alive. For awhile, I thought Ran the Seer was a reincarnation of Theoria. They looked so much alike, but in the end, I was wrong."

Re-L was finally beginning to understand this peculiar individual. Her career of working for the primary intelligence agency in Romdeau paid off in this regard. With only that small amount of information, she could easily make a plethora of conclusions on Kano's mental state. "Your sister was born with genetic complications due to being inbred," she slowly stated. "She had two heads and ended up dying later in life as a result."

It became readily apparent to Re-L that Kano was done with their conversation. Without saying another word, his very presence vanished from the room. His assistant and right hand man, Zashi, did the same.

For a split second, Re-L assumed she was alone. She quickly stood up after remembering the one priority she absolutely must achieve. She turned around and prepared to head back out the front door, but she halted her stride when she spotted an all new pair of figures standing in front of her.

Two men stood in between her and the entrance of the opera house. The first was a man dressed in an orange jumpsuit. The nervous looking man standing behind him wore a standard suit and had a head of messy brown hair.

"Who are you two," Re-L asked. She remained unfazed by the two new faces, assuming them to be another more than a couple of phantoms.

"My name is Kazuho Yoshii," the man in the orange suit proclaimed with a friendly wave. "This is my good friend, Sakimura. We heard you were planning to destroy the Obelisk once and for all. Do you mind if we watch?"

It took a few moments for Re-L to come up with a proper answer. Their request and appearance both caught her off guard. "Not at all," Re-L eventually replied. She said nothing else to this undead duo. She simply walked past them and headed towards the city beyond the opera house.

She headed straight into the fires of Lux without looking back.


End file.
